Poetic habits of mind in TESOL teacher preparation

Abstract

This paper examines the possibility of viewing TESOL teachers’ identities through the metaphor of ‘poet-teachers’, viewing second language teachers as creative and collaborative meaning-makers. We analyzed interviews, poems and classroom discourse among 16 Chinese, Vietnamese and English L1 speakers who participated in poetry writing course as a component of their TESOL teacher preparation curriculum. We identified three qualities related to poetic habits of TESOL teacher identity. Firstly, creative (l)imitation which enhances their identities as connected to and expanding from past structures, yielding new future selves. Secondly, the practice of surprising oneself in and through an L2, shifting scripted perceptions of language learning toward improvisational play. Lastly, teaching poetry illuminated the ways in which the language classroom becomes a site for dialogic collaboration, two-way exchanges where creative meaning-making can occur for both teacher and student alike. The results suggest imitation, surprise, and collaboration can create emotionally and linguistically rewarding experiences, encouraging the TESOL educator to identify as co-learners and to grow as interactive producers of meaning, not just passive instructors and receptors of language form.