Data analysis in participatory action research: using poetic inquiry to describe urban teacher marginalization

Abstract

This paper recommends the arts-based method of poetic inquiry for data analysis within PAR projects. Poems can express emotion, protect participant identities, and provide a generative medium through which to share results with broader audiences. I describe the methodology in depth, explaining how and why I used poetic inquiry within a participatory action research project with teachers in low-income, urban schools. I describe the process of generating poems through poetic inquiry, share the poems from our PAR project, and consider what the poems reveal. Emergent themes from the poems include recent and rapidly worsening teaching conditions, impacts of neoliberal policies, lack of administrator support, lack of autonomy, unprofessional treatment, and deep concern for their students.