Ars poetica and the 21st-century English/literacy classroom

Final call for English Teaching Practice and Critique: Ars poetica and the 21st-century English/literacy classroom

We have received some very interesting abstracts so far and would love to receive many more of you. Please pass the information on to any colleagues and doctoral students who are working in this field and do get in touch if you have any queries. Abstracts to be submitted by 31^st March 2013.

Co-editors: Jackie Manuel (University of Sydney, Australia) and Tony Petrosky (University of Pittsburgh, USA) and Sue Dymoke (University of Leicester)

What place does poetry have in the 21^st century English or literacy classroom? What do students think of poetry? How have their attitudes developed or changed over time? Is poetry an outmoded form of expression, resting high on a pedestal, unseen and seldom encountered except in an examination? Is it a text to be beaten for meaning (Collins 1988)? Or is it a vibrant, multi-modal medium which students want to slam, tweet, mash-up and revitalise through their use of digital media both at home and at school?

Where does the genre feature in school curricula and assessment regimes? Is there a distinct pedagogy for teaching poetry? How do teachers and teacher educators experiment with the challenges of writing or performing poetry? What are their views on learning poetry by heart? What do they listen to and how do they share new poetry discoveries with their students? How do beginning teachers develop confidence in a genre they may have studiously avoided in their own education?  Where are the opportunities for utilising poetic methodologies within research?

All these questions and many more are central to the focus of this special issue of English Teaching Practice and Critique which seeks to uncover the essence of the poetic classroom and to present a snapshot of the varied research in this dynamic and complex terrain.

The editors look forward to receiving contributions focusing on any aspect of this theme.  Abstracts to be submitted by 31^st March 2013. Subject to acceptance after peer review, full draft papers should be with the editors by 31^st May 2013.

Collins, B. (1999) ’Introduction to Poetry’ in The Apple that Astonished Paris. Fayetteville, The University of Arkansas Press, p.58.