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In this paper we explore ways in which adults engage children's and young adult books in primary and secondary schools in relation to Bakhtin's (1981) posited chronotope. We base our discussion on an analysis of experienced practising teachers' own engagement with books that are offered to children and young adults as part of teachers' didactic activities in developing literacy skills and literature appreciation in classrooms, drawing on the concept of the chronotope as going beyond the didactic to embrace the artistic and cultural in children's responses to their reading and writing. The suggestive possibilities of the chronotope as an organising feature of teaching reading and writing in a number of genres and production of text types, affords new ways of approaching reading by teachers, at the same time as it invites these teachers to examine their own responses to the literature that they engage in the process. The concept of the chronotope opens up spaces for literary and pedagogical responses that derive from children's own experience of their world, but we argue that teacher responses that are restricted by their own views of the world may inhibit a full exploration by children of the possibilities that the books that they encounter as didactically bound and culturally limiting.

This chapter illustrates the authors' intradepartmental, collaborative self-study of their literacy master's program through use of an adapted collaborative conference protocol to surface problems and solutions related to policies, procedures, and pedagogies. The department prioritized pedagogies fostering deep engagement with literacy education content as well as relationship-building with students. This intradepartmental case study leverages self-study methodology to structure collective inquiry, identifying “critical events” for deeper questioning, reflection, observation, and guidance for future practice. Three critical events created tensions relating to the literacy master's program's implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic: field experience placements, community-building with students, and student-teacher workload.