‘A joyous lifeline in a target driven job’: Teachers’ Metaphors

of Poetry Writing Instruction

Anthony Wilson

University of Exeter

a.c.wilson@exeter.ac.uk

Human learning presupposes a specific social nature and a process by which children grow into the intellectual life of those around them…

…thus the notion of a zone of proximal development enables us to propound a new formula, namely that the only ‘good learning’ is that which is in advance of development

Vygotsky, Mind in Society, 88-9 (in Bruner, Actual Minds, Possible Worlds, 1986: 73).

Why Metaphor?

Metaphor ‘joins dissimilar experiences by finding the image or the symbol that unites them at some deeper emotional level of meaning’ (Bruner, 1979: 63).

Langer (1967): metaphor facilitates organising and enhancing of information

Stockwell (2002:107): ‘mapping of properties’Hunt (2006:317): ‘the creative space between what

is personal and what becomes public’ Bruner (1990:29): Values linked to identity and

culture

‘Handbook’ Literature in UK

Hughes (1967),Brownjohn (1994), Pirrie (1994), Rosen (1989)

– Voice– Authenticity– Freedom– Release– Empowerment– Self-acceptance– Lack of ‘restraints’– Grace (Hughes)

Michael and Peter Benton

• Benton, M. (1978:114)– Poetry as a ‘Cinderella’ subject

• Benton, P. (1999)– Poetry as a ‘Rainbow’

• Benton, P. (2000) – ‘The Conveyor Belt Curriculum’

Recent Literature on Poetry Instruction

Journals with special editions on poetry/creativity

• NZ and Canada (Fraser; Mission and Sumara; Morgan; Sumara and Davis: 2006)– theoretical; postmodern; ethnographic

• UK (Obied; Peskin; Spiro; Stevens: 2007)– theoretical/practitioner; qualitative

• US (Griswold; Huie; Leggo; Schwalb; Skelton; Strever; Van Whye; Wilkinson: 2006)– practitioner; non-empirical

Methodology

• Questionnaire survey of teachers’ thinking about poetry writing and their instructional practices was disseminated to an opportunity sample of two separate groups of teachers attending in-service training on poetry writing pedagogy.

• Thirty three teachers, with a range of teaching experience and service, took part in the sample.

• Their responses were coded inductively (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) and ‘selectively’.

Clichéd Metaphors‘Poetry feels different: a breath of fresh air’ [1:Q3]‘any levels are based on a gut feeling. I am not

interested in some sort of detailed poetry by numbers tick box’ [7:Q5]

‘writing poetry reaches the parts that others do not’ [8:Q2]

‘from a teacher’s point of view it sometimes feels like a guilty pleasure’ [21:Q2]

‘no, too personal and potentially soul destroying’ [21:Q5]

‘difficulties are] getting them to take a leap in the dark and start writing’ [33:Q11]

Surprising Metaphors‘trying different expressions for size’ [2:Q3] ‘the uniqueness in a singer’s voice to convey emotion’

[4:Q4]‘a dialogue with oneself which also expresses and speaks

to something shared’ [30:Q1] ‘It teaches us that writing, like travelling, should be a matter

not of habit, but of experiment, if we ever want to go anywhere’ [25:Q2]

‘the writer playing in a kind of ocean, a pool of freedom around a rock’ [4:Q3]

‘poetry as a valuable playground for trying out techniques’ [6:Q2]

‘very important - a way of letting pupils escape the boundaries and suffocation of the curriculum –to explore themselves’ [32:Q2]

‘a joyous lifeline in a target driven job’[3:Q12]

Findings

1. Teachers view poetry writing as a site in which learners can explore their personal creativity.

2. In spite of claiming to use poems as ‘models’ to aid learners, teachers nevertheless reject the notion of ‘formulaic’ poetry writing.

3. Teachers emphasise the freedom which poetry writing allows them from curricular ‘directives’.

Discussion• Do these statements represent a romanticised

view of creativity?

• Is the emphasis on ‘suffocation’ of the curriculum an ‘escape’ model of poetry teaching, based on a lack of trust of testing/levelling?

• How far is this lack of trust also replicated in a lack of coherent theorising of personal creativity?

• Could the results be viewed as defensiveness against more political pressure, curricular change etc?

Discussion• Are these teachers teaching poetry writing for

themselves or their classes?

• Are these teachers pragmatic or frustrated?

Is poetry writing instruction a ‘price worth paying’ to maintain self-identity?

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