Poetic Expression and Poetic Form in Practitioner Research
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| Title: | Poetic Expression and Poetic Form in Practitioner Research |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Burchell, Helen |
| Source: | Educational Action Research. Sep 2010 18(3):389-400. |
| Availability: | Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Physical Description: | |
| Page Count: | 12 |
| Publication Date: | 2010 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Descriptive |
| Education Level: | Higher Education Postsecondary Education |
| Descriptors: | Poetry, Action Research, Creative Writing, Experience, Teacher Researchers, Educational Research, Leadership |
| DOI: | 10.1080/09650792.2010.500096 |
| ISSN: | 0965-0792 |
| Abstract: | The nature of participants' experience in practitioner research is often taken for granted, and its more tacit dimensions overlooked. Poetic expression is valuable in surfacing these tacit dimensions, enabling the researcher to engage with them more consciously and draw on them to strengthen the research. To illustrate, I draw on my own poetically expressive writing relating to the experience of leading an action research project--a text entitled "A Gossamer Thread." I describe how I came to write in this way, and draw on the poet Robert Frost's account of "the figure a poem makes" to show how the writing arises from within experience and is able to clarify its meaning. This process is linked to an understanding of Dewey's concept of integral experience. Ways in which poetic expression may contribute to practitioner research are discussed, exploring how the vitality of poetic expression can energise research and how writing poetically emphasises receptivity, stepping back from assumptions and opening up to possibility. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Number of References: | 16 |
| Entry Date: | 2010 |
| Accession Number: | EJ897101 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwHPd5gdr8ZartCpUOIA_Gm8AAAA4jCB3wYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHRMIHOAgEAMIHIBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDOuKxa-Qzq0atlxz1QIBEICBmi7HlduFD6VE52usWaTycP1OZoyo26gzq9qCDFNnGZPNGLZjMCNvn-MxI_C0kNInOqQMH_rOXQ7skoadKsds_KVDByEI-YNrp2csCqPcWwloNWFBteFrcE85zUILvbSF-hzVD7W0GQ8inRALpwxuGhD9xuS20Q9nrkWiVebPbr6UtkGycyDcG6eLI8ruB9aD9rNGlPakP3Oc8lo= Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0053466427;gp001sep.10;2019Feb21.14:31;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0053466427-1">Poetic expression and poetic form in practitioner research. </title> <p>The nature of participants' experience in practitioner research is often taken for granted, and its more tacit dimensions overlooked. Poetic expression is valuable in surfacing these tacit dimensions, enabling the researcher to engage with them more consciously and draw on them to strengthen the research. To illustrate, I draw on my own poetically expressive writing relating to the experience of leading an action research project – a text entitled A Gossamer Thread. I describe how I came to write in this way, and draw on the poet Robert Frost's account of 'the figure a poem makes' to show how the writing arises from within experience and is able to clarify its meaning. This process is linked to an understanding of Dewey's concept of integral experience. Ways in which poetic expression may contribute to practitioner research are discussed, exploring how the vitality of poetic expression can energise research and how writing poetically emphasises receptivity, stepping back from assumptions and opening up to possibility.</p> <p>Keywords: poetic expression; imagination and feeling; experience; practitioner research; leadership of action research</p> <hd id="AN0053466427-2">Introduction</hd> <p>This paper arises from my experience of working with poetic expression and poetic form as leader of an action research project, and from trying to understand the significance of writing in this way in comparison with what can be said through descriptive and analytical forms of writing. I was aware that the kind of descriptive and analytic writing I had previously drawn on to tell the story of this project provided only a partial picture. These more conventional forms of account had limitations and I saw there was something important missing if I wished to develop a fuller understanding of my engagement with the project.</p> <p>In reflecting on how I found a place for poetic expression and form, I realised that my experience might have something to offer others. In particular, I saw the importance of recognising that we all have the potential to draw on poetic expression, and that this does not mean what we conventionally might think of as 'writing poetry'. Poetic expression arises when we seek to write <emph>from within</emph> the feelings, thoughts, hopes and fears associated with being involved in research; when writing <emph>about</emph> these matters seems somehow hollow or insufficient. The focus is on words that can convey the freshness of the experience, in a way that is authentic for the individual.</p> <p>As the action research project drew to a close I tried to understand and write about my experience of leading the project. (In the paper I use the term action research to refer to the project I led, and practitioner research to differentiate a personal enquiry into my experience of the project.) In doing so, I wrote a 'story' in a form of expression I later referred to as poetic. I entitled the story <emph>A Gossamer Thread</emph>. Drawing on this example, I discuss how such writing may contribute to practitioner research, and how we might establish the conditions for it to flourish. I hope readers of this paper may see value in the example from my own practice, and find ways to explore bringing such expression and form into their own research writing.</p> <hd id="AN0053466427-3">Writing from experience</hd> <p>This paper explores the process of writing in a poetically expressive way, set within the context of considering what poetic expression and form might contribute to practitioner research. Understanding the nature of experience is key to this exploration. Leitch and Day challenged the rational, cognitive models of reflection implicit in much of the action research literature, and suggested the use of approaches that 'bypass the rational in the first instance, and find access to the emotional and imaginary substrates ...' ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref1">15</reflink>], 188). Their emphasis on finding access to these substrates of reflection is relevant, and leads us to consider what place they have in our experience as practitioner researchers. While naming and separating out these substrates for this purpose is important, we also need to work with a concept of experience that embraces all these strata of reflection.</p> <p>Dewey's concept of experience does this, as it takes account of the integration of intellectual, emotional and practical dimensions, offering an interesting perspective on the nature of experience and its relationship with artistic and aesthetic expression (Dewey [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref2">7</reflink>]). His account of the nature of an experience focuses on a 'unity that gives it its name ... constituted by a single <emph>quality</emph> that pervades the entire experience ...' (Dewey [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref3">7</reflink>], 37; original emphasis). This 'integral experience' has a dynamic organisation: 'I call the organization dynamic because it takes time to complete it, because it is a growth. There is inception, development, fulfilment' (Dewey [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref4">7</reflink>], 55). Dewey distinguishes experiences that have this unity and dynamic organisation from the category of 'things experienced but not in such a way that they are composed into <emph>an</emph> experience' ([<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref5">7</reflink>], 35; original emphasis). What is emphasised here is a way of looking at and thinking about experience that centres on a process of growth and development of the individual. If we wish to give meaning to such an experience, it is this process and the time‐frame within which it occurs that need to be recognised.</p> <p>One further significant feature of this dynamically organised process is the necessity that in every such integral experience the individual has some sense of 'undergoing' something, including reconstruction of what was previously known, which may involve some struggle or conflict (Dewey [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref6">7</reflink>], 41). This links to his idea of expression being a result of some kind of 'com‐pression' (Dewey [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref7">7</reflink>], 66). From this standpoint, acts of expression are distinguished from acts of discharge (of emotion, for example) because what is expressed arises from an interaction between the impulse within the writer and an external pressure that seems to negate this impulse in some way (Dewey [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref8">7</reflink>], 64). Moreover, such interaction will have been ongoing for some time: the expression is 'a construction in time, not an instantaneous emission' (Dewey [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref9">7</reflink>], 65). This meaning given to the idea of expression by Dewey is of relevance in understanding poetic expression, and its relationship to integral experience.</p> <p>One final element in understanding the nature of experience is relevant to this paper, and that is its relationship to practitioner research seen from an existential perspective. Feldman says existential reflection 'seeks to uncover the self as a teacher, to discover one's ways‐of‐being a teacher, in our original experiencing of the world including feelings like passion, mood, interest, curiosity and enthusiasm' ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref10">8</reflink>], 248). This 'experiencing of the world' is something that may play a part in poetically expressive writing, and thereby raise questions concerning how such a form of expression may enable both discovery and enhancement of ways‐of‐being practitioner researchers.</p> <p>I shall return to these ideas in later sections of the paper. However, what it is important to recognise at this point is that the nature of the experience of the practitioner researcher is not normally looked at in these terms. What is meant by 'experience' is often taken for granted. I suggest that understanding the potential for poetic expression and form within practitioner research is aided by understanding the nature of integral experience. Then we may be able to appreciate the value in expressing the meaning of experience poetically; how it enables the researcher to engage with the experience more fully and draw on it to strengthen their research and their practice.</p> <hd id="AN0053466427-4">Poetic expression and poetry in educational research</hd> <p>Poetic expression and poetry are seen as relevant to educational research in a number of ways. In the main, writers in the field refer to the place of poetry in educational research generally and present 'crafted' poems as their illustrative material. While their ideas have relevance, their focus tends not to be the practitioner researcher's experience and how this is reflected in such writing.</p> <p>Lesley Saunders, a poet and an educational researcher, puts forward some distinctive features of poetry for consideration in relation to the principles of qualitative research (Saunders [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref11">16</reflink>]). For the purpose of this discussion, I identify a number of these features here. Poetry is seen as seeking to:</p> <p>... present rather than argue; offer insights rather than build theory; ... proceed by association and image rather than evidence and logical consequence; ... communicate something ultimately unsayable (the paradox of poetry) because uniquely arising from the poet's personal vision and interpretation. (Saunders [<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref12">16</reflink>], 176)</p> <p>Such features provide a useful backdrop for considering the nature of poetic expression in practitioner research generally, and in the example explored in this paper.</p> <p>However, my interest is not only in what poetry seeks to do, but also in how a poetic form of expression may arise within an enquiry and be of value in articulating and clarifying a dimension of the practitioner researcher's experience. In Saunders' article, and in other discussions of the place of arts‐informed approaches in research, there is reference to 'data'; and a common distinction is made in such discussions between an artistic form as a means of generating and analysing data and the use of such a form as a way of representing the outcomes of research. In these terms, the discussion in this paper centres on generation, through a poetic form of expression, of an understanding of experience. It is a moot point as to whether this is appropriately referred to as 'data' for the practitioner researcher to work with and learn from. My suggestion is that such poetically expressive texts make a contribution to the enhancement of practice through the way they affect the practitioner researcher's way of being.</p> <p>One strand within the literature on poetry and educational research considers how researchers might draw on features often found in poems (such as metre, rhythm, metaphor) to create desired effects in their own poetic writing as part of their research (for example, Cahnmann [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref13">5</reflink>]). However, if we are considering how to access the more tacit layers of experience, crafting poems or more consciously working with 'data' to present these in poetic forms may not provide the only way forward. If we extend the idea of 'data' to include personal response to recollection of experience, then what I discuss here relates to the emergence of such a response in poetically expressive writing. The emphasis in this paper is on how poetic expression emerges in the writing practitioner researchers do. I take a lead here from Tricia Hiley, who writes about how her MA students (business people and consultants) develop poetic expression and form in their writing, based on sustained engagement with reflection on their experience and practice, and the development of the individual voice over time through their writing.</p> <p>Hiley invites us to consider how '... expressing our "selves" in texts that are vital breathes life into our words and our actions in the world' where 'movement of the words becomes one with the movement of the inner self' ([<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref14">14</reflink>], 561). She says she does not discuss poetry with her students, nor expect them to write poems. Yet, she says: 'for many, who have never written a poem before in their lives, poetry emerges effortlessly and somewhat magically for them with their voices' (Hiley [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref15">14</reflink>], 566). She describes 'poetic form' as providing 'larger "breathing spaces" and pauses than traditional ... prose form' (Hiley [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref16">14</reflink>], 566), and reflects on the fact that sometimes when reading writing that is in prose form 'I hear it as just beginning to break into poetry' ([<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref17">14</reflink>], 571). In drawing attention to the relationship between the inner self, words and actions in the world, I suggest Hiley is identifying how poetic expression may serve to enhance the way of being of the practitioner. 'Expressing our "selves" in texts' highlights the significance of the vitality of poetic expression in fuelling energy for research, in taking forward the feeling and imaginary layers of experience to future research endeavours.</p> <hd id="AN0053466427-5">Poetic expression and leadership of an action research project</hd> <p>The research context for writing <emph>A Gossamer Thread</emph> was my leadership of an action research project called the Dissertation Project. This involved four colleagues and myself: all of us were supervisors of students preparing dissertations. These four colleagues and I formed an action research group supported by a research assistant who acted as co‐researcher. Over a period of a year, we were each interviewed on four occasions by the co‐researcher, provided with feedback on that interview, and met for six group meetings. The project also involved us in keeping journals and writing stories about our experience. At the end of the year the co‐researcher wrote a pen‐portrait of each of us based on our interviews. My leadership role involved developing the themes for the interviews, in consultation with the group and the co‐researcher, and facilitating the group meetings. The description of my experience of the project that follows in part draws on joint accounts of the project by myself and the co‐researcher (Burchell and Dyson [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref18">3</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref19">4</reflink>]).</p> <p>From the starting point when I asked colleagues who were interested to join me in the project, there was a sense of uncertainty: as to whether busy colleagues would be prepared to join; and how a project structure would be developed that was appropriate for the level of engagement these colleagues might be prepared to give. The project also highlighted for me key issues of leadership within an enquiry process that was open‐ended and exploratory. It involved enquiring into professional development with a group of colleagues who had very busy professional lives and for some of them supervision was only a small part of their role. I remained concerned throughout the project as to whether the supervisors would continue to be involved, and how they might value their engagement. However, as the project progressed I also had a sense of how it punctuated the professional lives of all those involved, through its various aspects – a group meeting; a phone call from the co‐researcher to arrange an interview; a one‐to‐one meeting to receive feedback from a previous interview; an email from me asking for comments on the process; a discussion over coffee about the value of writing stories.</p> <p>The interviews seemed important in sustaining the project. Nonetheless, the process of developing the interview strategy itself required flexibility, producing an uncertainty that was at times perplexing. For example, just when the co‐researcher and I thought we had our interview questions prepared, we would find that we needed to add or modify questions in response to a theme developed in the most recent group meeting. I found this challenging but also exciting, ensuring an engagement of everyone throughout the project. While the interviews provided one element in the structure of the project over the year, the group meetings provided another. In some ways I found these meetings more demanding, as I needed to consider how to create the space for reflection. I found myself asking repeatedly how best to plan group meetings for my colleagues to this end; and how I might interpret what was happening in them and its significance. Also, arranging the meetings was not straightforward as work commitments affected supervisors' availability.</p> <p>In microcosm the meetings reflected the relationship within the project overall between structure and openness. Although I provided a view of the broad areas to be covered in the discussions at each meeting I was reluctant to frame the discussion too tightly, with a consequent level of uncertainty about how I might facilitate. I also recognised that the discussion at times had a particular quality that my co‐researcher and I suggested felt like a 'stream of consciousness'. We described it as: 'a loosely connected thread of conversation where there was a theme, often a prompt or question put in by Helen, and then a series of responses. These responses sometimes sparked off other thoughts and ideas, including a number of apparently rhetorical questions' (Burchell and Dyson [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref20">3</reflink>], 296). Experiencing these discussions led me to question what my colleagues' views were, and how profitable they found the meetings. Although in the final interviews colleagues gave their perceptions of the project, and what they had learnt from their involvement, during the time‐frame of the project itself I had no clear picture of what this would be.</p> <p>As project leader and facilitator I was interested in exploring the action research process, and my role within this. I had prior experience of facilitating an action research group within a fairly structured action research cycle model, yet on this occasion I found my approach was far looser. This was in part because I had intended to develop a cooperative inquiry approach and had therefore let go the structure given by the action research cycle. However, as the year progressed I realised that I had not established a cooperative inquiry group that operated in the way described by those who had originated this way of working (Heron and Reason [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref21">13</reflink>]). Moreover, I did not have an alternative label to describe the approach that the group and I developed. In writing about it I referred to creating and holding a space, a space for individual and collective reflection (Burchell and Dyson [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref22">3</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref23">4</reflink>]). Perhaps this is one of the reasons I sought to develop an alternative form for portraying my experience of the project; that somehow the inability to name the kind of action research undertaken meant a need to clarify what indeed had taken place. When writing about the earlier action research project I led (Burchell [<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref24">2</reflink>]), there was no such need as the approach was named, and I was able to locate and analyse my experience in terms of the kinds of dilemmas and issues such an approach presented. On this earlier occasion I did not feel the need to explore other dimensions of my experience.</p> <p>However, in the Dissertation Project there was a further important aspect of the context; namely, my ongoing attention to developing ideas about the project alongside considering different forms of writing, and then recording these ideas in a journal. When I decided to write about my experience of leading the project I began by re‐reading this journal. I made notes about why I began the project and how I had found it difficult to develop an approach that I could see as cooperative inquiry. I rehearsed my reactions and feelings about the project at each stage. As I did this I saw that I was concerned with the form my story of the project should take. I wanted to capture what I saw as the 'quality' or 'essential nature' of the project. I sought some resonance between the nature of the project as I reflected on it at this point and the mode of communication.</p> <p>Not knowing how to go about creating an appropriate form, I stepped back from working analytically with my journal entries, and turned to 'word doodles'. I took this idea from Joanna Field ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref25">9</reflink>]) who wrote about the importance of doodling in her attempt to paint. These word doodles provided phrases:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> • ... bumbling along, unknowing, no guidelines, only a loose structure.</item> <p></p> <item> • ... engagement – on the fringe, on the edge, part there – part not there.</item> </ulist> <p>As I continued to 'doodle' and reflect, I asked questions. Are there ways of speaking and writing that tap into the imaginary? Are there ways of capturing (as I wrote this I thought somehow this was the wrong word) the reverie? Can I write about the project using words in a different way?</p> <p>From this point I moved forward to write the piece I call <emph>A Gossamer Thread</emph>. I provide an edited version as a basis for discussion.</p> <hd id="AN0053466427-6">A Gossamer Thread: my story of the dissertation action research group</hd> <p>Unknowing we stepped forth – not all together, but all connected. Yes, we had spoken up, had said we would join, we would do it. (Whatever the <emph>it</emph> was. Did we know? Of course not.) We each searched for understanding.</p> <p>If only I had managed to think this through more, to provide a clearer structure, were the thoughts I had most frequently. And time. In my mind time became the symbol of difficulty. Would our meetings be frequent enough? Would we find space to be interviewed, write diaries or stories? If only, if only, I thought so often. A 'proper' project would have created more time, the leader would have insisted. Extracted a commitment from the group. But these are my friends at work. Such busy people. And part of me felt so unsure of the value of what we were doing. Or rather, how they would view the value. So how could I press them into meetings? If I pushed too hard, perhaps the project would not continue. It is held by a thread.</p> <p>A gossamer thread. So light, and yet with real strength. The project has continued and continues yet; the thread has grown and enveloped more of each of us, interweaving in the spaces between. Between meetings, between the project and the rest of our work, between each of us and the group.</p> <p>The meetings, the interviews – these formalised parts of the project are just the tip of an iceberg. Why didn't I see this before? That what matters is the energy; in the midst of the busyness of our lives the constant reconnection with an enquiry into practice. I imagine the thread, touching each of us lightly as we move through our daily routines. And as it touches, making the connection with the project anew.</p> <p>So what has my role been? Holding the thread? Unravelling it slowly? Not quite. For the thread is not something I control. Rather, I have been holding the space for the project to develop, even when it felt unsure, uncertain of its way forward. Like the mother of a young child, I have watched and waited. Anxious, yes. Excited, yes. Confused, yes. Sometimes despondent, yes. And often surprised, at how my friends and colleagues continued to be interested, to stay with the process. Of course, I have also given direction to the project in numerous ways – arranging meetings and the way they would be run, developing questions for supervisor interviews. Without this structuring element, the thread would indeed have broken, or been lost. But this quality of organising and directing would not have been enough. So to acknowledge the less visible aspects of leading such a project is important, and because they are less visible they are more difficult to describe. Hence the use of metaphor – the gossamer thread and the empty vessel.</p> <p>The image of the empty vessel represents something that holds, that awaits developments. But it needs careful preparation before those developments will manifest. If we view the project as an empty vessel, how may we describe the preparation? The qualities that were brought to the project can provide the insight here. Friendship and collegiality. Long experience of working hard and juggling many activities and roles. Skills of reflection and analysis. Concern for students and commitment to their learning. Enquiring minds. If the project is judged successful, it is in significant measure due to the strength of these qualities within the group.</p> <p>...</p> <p>Judging success, and feeling the project is 'going well' are, of course, important parts of the experience for the leader also. And for me remained problematic for a long time. Initially, I was inclined to make judgements of this kind with reference to external criteria, those presented in other accounts of projects of this kind. Some of these success criteria related to making changes in practice, a strong emphasis on the 'action' element in action research. Initially, I had envisaged something like a series of research‐action‐reflection cycles. We would develop some understanding of an issue in our supervision practice; make this the focus of changes; monitor these in some way by the interviews with ourselves; and report back to the group meetings. I am not really sure whether this happened or not for individuals, I certainly didn't have a clear picture of this process as the project developed. And this did give me a certain sense of anxiety. But only because I didn't recognise the importance of what I could witness happening.</p> <p>This was the sense of ongoing reflection, engagement with thinking about the supervision process. And within this the repeated asking of questions. What do you do? What should I do? Why is this? Alongside increasing understanding of how each one of us is as a supervisor. The unique way each of us engages with this role. The importance of this I think I have undervalued, have not in fact recognised as an enquiry process. I had placed research 'out there', and not really seen its resonance with an inner development. Reviewing this stance allows me to recognise more clearly the value of some of the statements we make towards the end of nine months of the project's life. When we comment that we have greater clarity about an issue, that we will never supervise in exactly the same way again, that important questions have been raised, I now feel things have indeed gone well. We have learnt and developed, and have different meanings to give to our futures as supervisors.</p> <p>I am suggesting this writing has features of poetic expression and, in relation to the discussion in the next section, of poetic form also. Viewed from the standpoint of Saunders' ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref26">16</reflink>]) purposes for poetry, I suggest the writing moves in this direction; for example, by working with insight, association and image. Not all of the writing works in these ways, and I am highlighting in this discussion the more poetically expressed elements. I view the text as significantly different from descriptive or analytic accounts of my leadership of the project. It might be described as a reflective piece of writing, in which the words create something of the writer's feelings and understandings, and where a central image – the gossamer thread – conveys the quality of the experience.</p> <p>Drawing on Hiley's views to reflect on <emph>A Gossamer Thread</emph>, I would suggest there are times when phrases, sometimes a series of phrases, have something of the spaces and pauses she mentions. Rather than identifying these times here, I invite the reader to feel whether there is a suggestion here of prose 'breaking into' poetic expression. As the writer of <emph>A Gossamer Thread</emph> I can attest to the way in which the words resonate for me with a vitality that brings to the fore and strengthens my sense of how I am as a leader of a project. Hence, the significance of seeing a relationship between movement of words and movement of inner self, and how this forms a basis for development of the individual's sense of a 'way of being' in their practice world.</p> <hd id="AN0053466427-7">Poetic expression clarifies the meaning of experience</hd> <p>Based on the example of <emph>A Gossamer Thread</emph>, I suggest there are three inter‐related aspects to the clarification of experience through poetic expression. The first acknowledges that the process of writing constitutes the understanding. The second affirms the significance of the experience having the form of an 'integral experience' as discussed by Dewey. The third reveals the importance of a place of 'reverie' as the context within which such writing emerges.</p> <p> <emph>A Gossamer Thread</emph> was written to help me understand my experience of the project, but also in a sense constitutes that understanding. I did not develop the understanding first (or at least not 'consciously') and then write about it, the writing itself revealed my understanding. The way the poet Robert Frost writes about the 'figure of a poem' can be used to elucidate this process:</p> <p>... The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom. ... It begins in delight, it inclines to the impulse, it assumes direction with the first line laid down, it runs a course of lucky events, and ends in a clarification of life – not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion. It has denouement. It has an outcome that though unforeseen was predestined from the first image of the original mood – and indeed from the very mood. ... (Frost [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref27">10</reflink>], 18)</p> <p>If I take these observations and look at the writing of <emph>A Gossamer Thread</emph>, there are several parallels. To begin in delight is to feel the enjoyment of the first words, as I did in writing: 'Unknowing, we stepped forth – not all together, but all connected'. These few words carry the significance of my experience of the project, and link the emotional and cognitive elements. They contrast with more conventionally descriptive or analytic ways in which I might have conveyed these ideas. To incline to impulse and assume direction is to follow where the writing leads without pre‐planning the ideas and feelings to be conveyed or the means of their communication. I wrote the whole story in one sitting: there was no plan as to what the writing should include, or the images that it would work with. To have an unforeseen outcome that relates to the original mood is to honour the feeling within the experience and allow the words to speak from this place. To end in a clarification of life is to resolve some confusion or uncertainty, which for me surrounded the meaning of the project and my role in it. The 'gossamer thread' word‐image gives voice to this meaning. This is the sense in which it 'ends in wisdom', thereby strengthening my understanding of a 'way of being' as a facilitator/leader.</p> <p>Placing these observations in the context of Dewey's theory of experience and expression shows some further important parallels. The ideas of an experience having unity (relating to a special quality) and a dynamic organisation (inception, development, fulfilment) are visible here too. The special quality could be named in terms of the two metaphors drawn on – the gossamer thread and the empty vessel. I believe it lies also in what Frost refers to as the 'original mood'. The dynamic organisation is reflected in the structure of the story – from an 'unknowing' starting point, through the ways in which the project engaged those involved, to a fulfilment in terms of my understanding of the meaning of the experience. This organisation in turn reflects the dynamics of the experience itself, in particular my struggle with a cooperative inquiry approach to the project. In terms of expression, therefore, the poetic quality relates both to this struggle and to the perceived inadequacy of another type of text (analytic and descriptive). This is a reflection of Dewey's idea of an external pressure: I describe this briefly in the account of how I came to write <emph>A Gossamer Thread</emph>.</p> <p>Poetically expressive writing provides the writer with ways of staying connected to the experience, through its recognition as a dynamically organised whole. The story and the image of a gossamer thread continue to evoke for me what I felt marked my experience of leading the project. The key to the story having this evocative quality for me, to my valuing it and wanting to re‐read it, is that it is both simple and complex. Simple, in that the images serve as reminders of the core of the experience for me. Complex, in that these images are born of considerable engagement with my practice, trying to understand what it means to me and to find a way to express this so that I (and anyone else who might read the story) will be engaged. This idea of complexity can be understood in terms of Dewey's view that an act of expression is a construction in time, in this case a reflection of engagement with the idea of leadership of this project over a considerable period.</p> <p>Finally, I was searching for a form of words that would portray how I felt about leading the project in a way that would tap into the imagination and reflect a sense of reverie. This sense of reverie meant a 'letting go into' the quality of the experience I was seeking to portray; it enabled me to be in touch with an experience (of leading a project) in a different way than if I had focused on a more analytical account. Finding a place of reverie emphasises qualities important in practitioner research also: receptivity, stepping back from assumptions, opening up to possibility. Put another way, the space from which the poetically expressive writing arises may be seen as one of reverie. Again, Robert Frost provides a way of seeing how this might be when he writes about the figure a poem makes:</p> <p>For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn't know I knew. I am in a place, in a situation, as if I had materialized from cloud or risen out of the ground. There is a glad recognition of the long lost and the rest follows. ... The impressions most useful to my purpose seem always those I was unaware of and so made no note of at the time when taken ... (Frost [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref28">10</reflink>], 18–19)</p> <p>My situation was one of reflecting on what had happened over a year of leading and being part of a project. Initially, this reflection drew on notes I had made, but, as in Frost's case, those impressions that were most useful were not always found there. The idea of remembering something also resonates: what was remembered was as much felt as thought, and the 'glad recognition' comes when the words give back to oneself those feeling‐thoughts. In 'giving back to oneself', the words both reveal and reinforce the significance of the experience.</p> <p>This sense of reverie revealed not only the thoughts and feelings that I had as leader of the project but also how I would have wished the project to be. This may seem rather complex, but I am presenting a picture of two layers of experience: both that which was 'thought and felt' <emph>and</emph> what I recognised as immanent in these thoughts and feelings. Through this latter feature of the story I began to identify something I wanted to work towards as a leader of such a project, which showed me how such writing could reveal ideals I held for practice, the imaginative layer of experience. I could have written about both my reflections on the project and these ideals in a more descriptive and analytic text. But this would have lived in a different layer of reflection on experience than that referred to by Leitch and Day ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref29">15</reflink>]). Enriching my understanding through writing and (re‐)reading <emph>A Gossamer Thread</emph> contributes distinctively to a development of my 'way of being' as a project facilitator and leader.</p> <p>In conclusion, I recognise, of course, that the image of a gossamer thread is a personal representation of my experience of the project. It may be understood in different ways by other readers, and may evoke different things for them than those that were important to me. However, for myself, continuing engagement with the story heightens continuing connection with the experience, and the nourishment of a way of being reflected therein. This effect arises from the resonance carried in the words, providing a pathway to the feeling and imaginative dimensions of experience as well as to the cognitive.</p> <hd id="AN0053466427-8">Opening a conversation around principles for practitioner research</hd> <p>I have discussed the process of developing poetic expression and form in some detail, not only to explore my own experience as a practitioner researcher but also to provide a basis for reflection on the contribution to practitioner research. In a field where ways of working as researchers are (relatively) new, it is important to set out the processes used and the thinking that lies behind them as transparently as possible. In this context, I make some initial observations that may serve to open a conversation around the principles that underlie practitioner research that draws on arts‐informed approaches and/or explores the emotional and imaginary substrates of reflection on experience.</p> <p>Heikkinen, Huttunen, and Syrjälä ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref30">11</reflink>]) have begun to do this in their exploration of the place of narrative in action research, and Dadds ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref31">6</reflink>]) in relation to empathetic validity in practitioner research. I draw on some of their observations to highlight areas for consideration in discussion of the place of poetic expression and form in action research and practitioner research. Three of the principles set out by Heikkinen, Huttunen, and Syrjälä ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref32">11</reflink>]) seem particularly pertinent in the light of the position I have established here: reflexivity, workability, and evocativeness.</p> <p>The reflexive position taken by the researcher, a principle also referred to by Dadds ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref33">6</reflink>]), and the emphasis on the feeling and imaginary layer of experience referred to in this paper highlight the significance of an ontological position that emphasises embodied knowing (Anderson [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref34">1</reflink>]) and an 'extended epistemology', such as that of Heron ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref35">12</reflink>]), which recognises different ways of knowing: experiential, presentational, propositional and practical. For the purpose of this initial step in opening a conversation, it is presentational knowing that relates most closely to the ideas in this paper, and to the interpretation of reflexivity inherent in them. Presentational knowing is seen as 'an intuitive grasp of the significance of patterns as expressed in graphic, plastic, moving, musical and verbal art‐forms' (Heron [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref36">12</reflink>], 122). To engage with this form of knowing reflexively suggests attention to the issues discussed earlier: the significance of finding the place of reverie and the recognition of patterns as central to understanding the integral experience.</p> <p>The principle of workability – 'what is useful is true' (Heikkinen, Huttunen, and Syrjälä [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref37">11</reflink>], 15) – raises an issue concerning what counts as 'useful' in action research. From the position established in my research, 'usefulness' would need to be interpreted in terms of how poetic writing refines, embeds and helps embody those layers of experience that strengthen a 'way of being' on the part of the practitioner researcher, and signal changes in understanding of, and ability to carry out, a particular role. Dadds points to the link between new knowing, new feeling and new action – suggesting these lead to positive emotional transformation ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref38">6</reflink>], 284), again drawing attention to the importance of the emotional and imaginary substrate referred to by Leitch and Day ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref39">15</reflink>]). Such a link between knowing, feeling and action viewed from the position taken in this paper emphasises also the significance of attending to the practitioner's way of being.</p> <p>A distinctive feature of arts‐informed approaches to research is the evocativeness of their accounts. This evocative quality, through the resonance of text with experience on the part of the writer, is an important dimension of the approach discussed in this paper. However, we might also question how the reader relates to the writer's text: Dadds refers to this as the creation of meaning and response in the space where reader meets text ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref40">6</reflink>], 286). Heikkinen, Huttunen, and Syrjälä suggest this relates to how the reader's prevalent mindset is altered through the aesthetic and creative dimensions of the writing, its interpretive vitality and expressive voice ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref41">11</reflink>], 8). This interpretive vitality and expressive voice, as they arise from an integral experience, carry cognitive, emotional, practical and imaginary dimensions of that experience. I suggest that in so far as the reader is attuned to such dimensions of experience, evocative writing may have the effect Heikkinen, Huttunen, and Syrjälä suggest.</p> <hd id="AN0053466427-9">Final observations</hd> <p>This paper has been an invitation to consider a way of writing within action research and practitioner research that has perhaps received little attention and may now be of increased interest. It attempts to address questions concerning how we might value such writing, and by implication how we might support its development. As we seek ways to articulate the more tacit dimensions of experience that are important in practice‐based research, it is important to consider the place of poetic expression and poetic form. Experience is multi‐dimensional and its research needs to encompass layers of feeling and imagination as well as cognition. For research to lead forward, to enable us to see future possibilities not available to us before we engaged with a research project, this layer of personal insight and development is vital.</p> <ref id="AN0053466427-10"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref34" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Anderson, R.2003. Embodied writing: Presencing the body. Somatics, 13(4): 40–4.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib2" idref="ref24" type="bt">2</bibl> <bibtext> Burchell, H.2000. Facilitating action research for curriculum development in higher education. Innovations in Education and Training International, 37(3): 263–9.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib3" idref="ref18" type="bt">3</bibl> <bibtext> Burchell, H. and Dyson, J.2005. Action research in higher education: Exploring ways of creating and holding the space for reflection. Educational Action Research, 13(2): 291–300.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib4" idref="ref19" type="bt">4</bibl> <bibtext> Burchell, H. and Dyson, J.2009. "Voices from a reflective space: Teacher educators reflect on practice". In Teacher learning in small‐group settings: Teacher Education Yearbook XVII, Edited by: Craig, C.J. and Deretchin, L.F.321–42. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Education.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib5" idref="ref13" type="bt">5</bibl> <bibtext> Cahnmann, M.2003. The craft, practice and possibility of poetry in educational research. Educational Researcher, 32(3): 29–36.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib6" idref="ref31" type="bt">6</bibl> <bibtext> Dadds, M.2008. Empathetic validity in practitioner research. Educational Action Research, 16(2): 279–90.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib7" idref="ref2" type="bt">7</bibl> <bibtext> Dewey, J.1934. Art as experience, New York: Capricorn Books.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib8" idref="ref10" type="bt">8</bibl> <bibtext> Feldman, A.2002. Existential approaches to action research. Educational Action Research, 10(2): 233–51.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibl id="bib9" idref="ref25" type="bt">9</bibl> <bibtext> Field, J.1983. On not being able to paint, Los Angeles, CA: J.P. Tarcher.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Frost, R.1967. The complete poems of Robert Frost, London: Jonathan Cape.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Heikkinen, L.T., Huttunen, R. and Syrjälä, L.2007. Action research as narrative: Five principles for validation. Educational Action Research, 15(1): 5–19.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Heron, J.1992. Feeling and personhood, London: Sage.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Heron, J. and Reason, P.2001. "The practice of co‐operative inquiry: Research with rather than on people". In Handbook of action research: Participative inquiry and practice, Edited by: Reason, P. and Bradbury, H.179–88. London: Sage.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Hiley, T.J.2006. Finding one's voice: The poetry of reflective practice. Management Decision, 44(4): 561–74.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Leitch, R. and Day, C.2000. Action research and reflective practice: Towards a holistic view. Educational Action Research, 8(1): 179–93.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Saunders, L.2003. On flying, writing poetry and doing educational research. British Educational Research Journal, 29(2): 175–87.</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Helen Burchell</p> <p>Reported by Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref11"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref14"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref21"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref27"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref30"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref35"></nolink> |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Poetic Expression and Poetic Form in Practitioner Research – Name: Language Label: Language Group: Lang Data: English – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Burchell%2C+Helen%22">Burchell, Helen</searchLink> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Educational+Action+Research%22"><i>Educational Action Research</i></searchLink>. Sep 2010 18(3):389-400. – Name: Avail Label: Availability Group: Avail Data: Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals – Name: PeerReviewed Label: Peer Reviewed Group: SrcInfo Data: Y – Name: PhysDesc Label: Physical Description Group: PhysDesc Data: PDF – Name: Pages Label: Page Count Group: Src Data: 12 – Name: DatePubCY Label: Publication Date Group: Date Data: 2010 – Name: TypeDocument Label: Document Type Group: TypDoc Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Descriptive – Name: Audience Label: Education Level Group: Audnce Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Higher+Education%22">Higher Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Postsecondary+Education%22">Postsecondary Education</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Descriptors Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Poetry%22">Poetry</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Action+Research%22">Action Research</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Creative+Writing%22">Creative Writing</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Experience%22">Experience</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Teacher+Researchers%22">Teacher Researchers</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+Research%22">Educational Research</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Leadership%22">Leadership</searchLink> – Name: DOI Label: DOI Group: ID Data: 10.1080/09650792.2010.500096 – Name: ISSN Label: ISSN Group: ISSN Data: 0965-0792 – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: The nature of participants' experience in practitioner research is often taken for granted, and its more tacit dimensions overlooked. Poetic expression is valuable in surfacing these tacit dimensions, enabling the researcher to engage with them more consciously and draw on them to strengthen the research. To illustrate, I draw on my own poetically expressive writing relating to the experience of leading an action research project--a text entitled "A Gossamer Thread." I describe how I came to write in this way, and draw on the poet Robert Frost's account of "the figure a poem makes" to show how the writing arises from within experience and is able to clarify its meaning. This process is linked to an understanding of Dewey's concept of integral experience. Ways in which poetic expression may contribute to practitioner research are discussed, exploring how the vitality of poetic expression can energise research and how writing poetically emphasises receptivity, stepping back from assumptions and opening up to possibility. – Name: AbstractInfo Label: Abstractor Group: Ab Data: As Provided – Name: Ref Label: Number of References Group: RefInfo Data: 16 – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2010 – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: EJ897101 |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1080/09650792.2010.500096 Languages: – Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 12 StartPage: 389 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Poetry Type: general – SubjectFull: Action Research Type: general – SubjectFull: Creative Writing Type: general – SubjectFull: Experience Type: general – SubjectFull: Teacher Researchers Type: general – SubjectFull: Educational Research Type: general – SubjectFull: Leadership Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Poetic Expression and Poetic Form in Practitioner Research Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Burchell, Helen IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 09 Type: published Y: 2010 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 0965-0792 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 18 – Type: issue Value: 3 Titles: – TitleFull: Educational Action Research Type: main |
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