Abstract
In many works of fiction for young people, school settings often play a significant part in staging the interactions between characters, child and adult alike. Schools and children’s literature share common characteristics: both are created by adults for children; both serve a socialising and pedagogical function; and both are highly responsive to cultural and technological change . As children’s literature’s implied audience is the child reader who is experiencing school in all its variant aspects, it is then important to consider how fiction represents the idea of the school as both space and place , and the insights (and lessons) it offers in terms of transformative possibilities either through constructions of fantastic or realistic school settings, or implied through negative examples. Drawing on the influential studies of spatiality by Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau , and interdisciplinary research, this chapter considers the extent to which a selection of contemporary texts for young people gives an imaginative form to the spatial practices of school that research documents. By drawing together two modes of knowing—the ‘real’ and the imaginary—this chapter shows how each plays an important part in understanding how design and affect impact on children’s wellbeing and their experience of school life.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Lefebvre’s parallel syntax emphasises the parallel and complementary functions of his terms’ (Gargano, 2008, p. 165).
- 2.
While states still develop their own standardised designs for school buildings, a significant change occurred in 2009 when the Nation Building—Economic Stimulus Plan committed substantial funds to modernise Australian school facilities through the Building the Education Revolution program.
- 3.
These early Australian titles and more are available in full text from AustLit: Children’s Literature Digital Resources https://www-austlit-edu-au.ezp01.library.qut.edu.au/austlit/page/5960611.
- 4.
My visit was part of a research project , Nature in Children’s Literature (NaChiLit) conducted through the Western Norway University of Applied Science (https://www.hvl.no/en/research/group/nachilit/).
- 5.
Norway has approximately equal numbers of private (53%) and public (47%) preschools (Lysklett & Berger, 2016, p. 96).
- 6.
All kindergarten employees have updated life-saving certificates, and the children must wear their own life-jackets when near the water.
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Mallan, K. (2019). School Design and Wellbeing: Spatial and Literary Meeting Points. In: Hughes, H., Franz, J., Willis, J. (eds) School Spaces for Student Wellbeing and Learning. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6092-3_4
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