Poetry as praxis: An exploration of poetry discourse as qualitative inquiry

Abstract

To capture the essence of an experience, poetry as research may manifest itself in two ways: (i) creating a research poem from existing data, often transcripts, or (ii) using participants' poetry as a data-set for harvesting patterns and themes. This research focuses on the second form of poetic inquiry as a means of praxis by using the poetry of inservice teachers, preservice teachers, and elementary students to discover themes in regard to the teaching and learning process. As literacy teacher educators, creating praxis (moving from the theoretical to the practical) remains the ultimate goal of teaching and learning experiences. We gathered poems as data-sets in order to explore the possible benefits and limitations of poetic inquiry. As we approached the notion of poetry as a form of inquiry, we probed whether this art-based inquiry might also equate educational praxis. After considering several poetry data-sets, this research provides evidence of possible benefits related to the praxis that poetry as discourse and artistic inquiry affords, and presents the caveats of the research by identifying possible limitations.