ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on empirical research carried out over a two-year period in a small coastal secondary school in the North of England. Tracing the trajectory of the academisation project in English schools, the chapter begins with an exploration of the conditions that being subject to a ‘forced academy order’ brings. Set against a background of policy which, it is argued, privileges the neoliberal ideals of competition and individualism, we see an erasure of space and place as the academy trust, which takes over the school, seeks to both regulate and colonise. Through the voices of both students and teachers, this chapter develops a counternarrative as it examines the ontological connection to place experienced by the school community. The chapter reflects upon how such a connection to place can inform pedagogy through understanding personal geographies. It leads to a questioning of whether the curriculum addresses and enables physical and emotional space for local connections and landscapes to be formed. It then offers a framework for teachers to harness concepts related to place and local ways of in their own teaching and learning.
