ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the themes of emplacement, of identifications with place, of place as a resource, of place as constantly shifting. It considers how place can play into and out of classroom literacy practice. The chapter draws on stories from Megan Hirst’s classroom in exploring how a focus on relationships with place can support a place-focused, strengths-based approach to literacy provision and considers some principles and approaches for working in this way. The idea that any location has past and possible futures folded into it chimes with The Doctor’s explanation of the fluidity of time and space as “wibbly-wobblytimey-wimey”. Literacy is the means through which students can work with complexity, permeability, and relatedness to open up new possibilities. Megan’s walk-through provides a messier, more multi-layered story about place. It tells of how locations are repurposed and practiced in different ways: the playground is sometimes a meeting place for families to congregate, sometimes a place to play long after school’s out.
