English Teaching: Practice and Critique

Volume 12, Number 1 (May 2013): Focus: Ars poetica and the 21st-century English/literacy classroom


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

Rationale:

What place does poetry have in the 21st 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 form 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?  Where are the opportunities for utilising poetic methodologies within research?
Questions such as these are the focus of this special issue of English Teaching Practice and Critique which seeks to explore and illuminate the nature of the poetic classroom and to present a snapshot of the varied research in this dynamic and complex terrain.
Contributors to this issue come from a range of settings, England, Ireland, Australia, the US, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan.
Reference
Collins, B. (1999) Introduction to Poetry. In The apple that astonished Paris. Fayetteville, AK: The University of Arkansas Press.
 

The Editorial Board expresses its gratitude to the the guest editors of this issue and also to the following (some are members of the Review Board) who have helped with the review process: Paul Brock (University of Sydney)

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