Place-based reading: Literature teaching outside the classroom

Place-based reading is described by Eggersen (2024) as a specific four stepped model for literature teaching beyond the school walls.
The place-based reading model’s theoretical foundation is presented as a merge of three broad academic fields: philosophies of place (Casey, 1993), literary topographics (Moslund, 2010), and education outside the classroom (Bentsen et al., 2012). Teaching with place-based reading as a method means in practice that the teacher conducts teaching activities in places in the school's neighborhood. These activities should enhance the students´ exploratory bi-directional attention to text-place in order to learn in, from, and about the place.

With this presentation I intend to contribute to a discussion that addresses the question whether literature teaching beyond the school walls could reveal to students that literature and their surrounding life-world are related to each other in manifold ways.

After a short introduction to place-based readings´ theoretical basis, I will present the PBR model and give practical examples from my Ph.D fieldwork.

References

Bentsen, P. & Jensen, F.S. (2012). The nature of udeskole: outdoor learning theory and practice in Danish schools. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning,12(3), 199-219. https://doi.org/10.1080/14729679.2012.699806

Casey, E.S. (1993). Getting back into place. Toward a renewed understanding of the place-world. Indiana University Press, 2ndEdition (2009).

Eggersen, D.V. (2024). Place-based reading. Literature didactics outside the classroom. L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 24 (1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.21248/l1esll.2024.24.1.384

Moslund, S. (2010). The Presence of Place in Literature – with a Few Examples from Virginia Woolf. Aktuel Forskning. http://static.sdu.dk/mediafiles//F/3/9/%7BF39578E6-7C8B-49BA-B7BE-3244D3CC3884%7DPlaceInLiterature.pdf