Using poetry as a medium to enhance learning and engagement is a fresh idea in higher education. LSE HE Blog Fellow Sam Illingworth is on a mission to increase awareness of its potential – here he explains its power and offers theoretical insights and practical tips on integrating poetry into teaching and learning environments.
- Share your poems about HE: Sam is calling for submissions for a Poetry Amnesty – find out more at the end of this post
I’m Sam Illingworth, researcher, teacher, and poet. My practice involves using poetry to help connect different communities, bridge academic disciplines and foster inclusive dialogues. In my LSE HE Blog Fellowship, I aspire to encourage others in higher education to discover the potential of poetry in enriching our personal and professional lives.
The integration of poetry as a pedagogical tool offers a unique way to enhance learning experiences. From groupwork and assessment to reflection and research, poetry can transform educational approaches, deepening understanding and engagement across various disciplines.
A catalyst for learning and expression
In the context of higher education, poetry writing stands out as a significant tool for students who may find the academic and emotional demands of certain degree programmes challenging. A study involving students from a Health Science Foundation Degree programme highlighted how poetry facilitated an exploration of their professional identities and offered a powerful means to articulate complex emotions and experiences. Initially perceived as a daunting task, poetry writing was found to bolster students’ reflective and writing capabilities, offering them a distinctive perspective on the nuances of healthcare work. This approach shows the transformative potential of poetry in connecting academic learning with the emotional depth required in nursing practice, enriching both the educational journey and professional development of future healthcare workers.
Similarly, published poetry can also be used to help explore frontier research or encourage students to view a topic through an alternative lens. The following poem (taken from my blog The Poetry of Science) illustrates what this might look like, presenting a poetic turn on recent research, which has found that vulnerable populations face flood risk in most African countries.
Driven by Drought
Under African skies
the earth splits wide
like sun-baked clay,
birthing lifeless fields
in empty beds.
Across this broken land
people shift
like shadows,
adapting,
surviving,
moving,
always moving.
Towards the river
whispered in the soil.
Towards the city
blooming like algae.
Towards the mirage
of better days.
Nighttime lights
paint patterns
like constellations
crashed to earth,
a yearning tribute
to where the rains
once fell.
Transforming academic content into poetry is not just a creative exercise, but can also be a powerful form of authentic assessment. This approach, aligning with Jan McArthur’s advocacy for authentic assessment in higher education, goes beyond testing comprehension. It encourages students to express their understanding in innovative ways, fostering skills relevant for societal impact as well as workplace proficiency. Poetry in this context becomes a tool for students to critically engage with material, reflect on societal implications, and develop a voice that contributes positively to society, embodying the essence of meaningful education.
However, this approach is not without its challenges. Integrating poetry into academic assessment may present obstacles in terms of standardising evaluation criteria and ensuring objectivity in grading. The subjective nature of poetry could complicate the assessment of academic content, potentially leading to variability in grading practices. Additionally, students with differing levels of comfort and skill in creative writing might find this form of assessment more daunting than traditional methods, potentially affecting their performance and engagement. Addressing these concerns requires careful consideration of assessment design and support mechanisms (for example, formative assessments and peer support) to ensure that all students can benefit from this innovative approach while maintaining the fairness of academic evaluation.
A sense of belonging
In my research I’ve delved into the distinctive role of poetry in exploring the sense of belonging among both staff and students. I’ve found that poetry can serve as a channel for individuals to share their lived experiences and emotions, thereby fostering a sense of community and creating a more inclusive academic atmosphere. In doing so, poetry acts as a conduit for empathy, allowing participants to immerse themselves in the lived realities of others. Looking more widely, this immersive experience can deepen understanding and compassion across the academic community, encouraging a supportive environment. I believe that poetry fosters understanding by challenging assumptions in a safe environment. Such activities not only promote empathy towards others but also encourage self-reflection and self-care among students.
Poetry [can] merge the abstract with the tangible, offering students a unique lens through which to view their studies
Exploring further the dynamic role of poetry as an educational tool reveals its capacity to merge the abstract with the tangible, offering students a unique lens through which to view their studies. Poetry’s versatility extends to addressing modern ethical dilemmas and fostering critical thinking. Imagine students crafting poems to navigate the moral complexities of artificial intelligence, the inequity of the climate crisis, or the ethics of genetic engineering. Writing poetry compels them to engage deeply with these issues, crafting narratives that explore the human element behind the headlines. By embodying the voices of different communities, students (and educators) enhance their understanding of ethical landscapes and also develop empathy and a nuanced perspective of different lifeworlds.
Making poetry accessible and respected
While my enthusiastic endorsement of poetry in higher education is unwavering, I’ve encountered significant challenges that require ongoing attention and effort to overcome. One primary challenge is the pervasive perception that poetry is not universally accessible or relevant. This obstacle often arises from individuals’ previous exposures to forms of poetry that did not resonate with their personal experiences or cultural backgrounds. A substantial part of my work, and indeed this fellowship, is thus dedicated to demystifying poetry and advocating for its inclusive potential. My goal is to help individuals discover poetry that speaks to their experiences, thereby broadening their perception of poetry as a meaningful and accessible medium.
Another hurdle I frequently face is the scepticism regarding the seriousness and scholarly merit of poetry within academic circles. Some critics view my focus on poetry as frivolous or lacking in academic rigour, dismissing it as a hobby rather than a legitimate scholarly pursuit. Rather than being deterred by such critiques, I embrace them as a challenge and an opportunity. My response involves reinforcing the validity of poetry by highlighting examples from my own peer-reviewed research, as well as the surrounding literature; be they autoethnographies exploring identity and belonging or case examples of teacher experiences.
By engaging sceptics in a dialogue using language and evidence that resonates with them, I aim to bridge the gap between preconceived notions of poetry’s value and its actual potential to enrich academic inquiry and expression. This approach not only seeks to convert the already convinced but also to open a meaningful discourse with the academically sceptical, illustrating poetry’s capacity to contribute significantly to educational outcomes and societal discourse.
Poetry in your practice
For readers who are interested in using poetry in their own learning environments, here are five practical ways to embed poetry into your own pedagogical toolkit.
- Poetry as a medium. Recognise poetry’s role beyond mere literary output. Use it as a tool for discovery and expression, allowing students to explore subjects with creativity and depth. For example, history undergraduate students could write poems from the perspective of historical figures, helping them to empathise and understand different viewpoints.
- Make it accessible. Poetry has the potential to make higher education more accessible. However, this can only be achieved if we ensure that both the poetry itself and our methods of introducing it are accessible and reflect a wide range of diverse perspectives. Select poems that resonate with the varied backgrounds and experiences of your learners and introduce poetry in a manner that is welcoming and inclusive to all.
- Focus on process. Emphasise the creative process of writing poetry over its artistic perfection. This encourages students to freely express their thoughts and ideas without the pressure of creating ‘perfect’ poems.
- Create a safe space. Ensure the teaching environment is welcoming and non-judgemental. Encourage students to share their poetry, knowing their work will be met with respect and openness, fostering a supportive learning community.
- Be vulnerable. Share your own poetry, demonstrating that the focus is not on aesthetics but on expression and personal growth. This humanises the learning experience and encourages students to also share authentically.
The integration of poetry into higher education is not just an artistic endeavour but a robust pedagogical strategy. It fosters deeper engagement, nurtures critical and creative thinking, and builds a sense of community. I hope that this initial blog post has encouraged readers to consider embracing this approach, and to start reimagining the landscape of higher education through the lens of poetry.
Poetry Amnesty: a call for submissions
To further explore the impact of poetry in higher education, I’m excited to introduce the ‘Poetry Amnesty’ initiative as part of my Fellowship. This project seeks your anonymous poetic contributions, to illuminate and enrich our collective understanding of higher education. Submissions are welcome from anyone working (or learning) in higher education, from anywhere in the world. These poems will be compiled and shared in April of this year, offering a tapestry of voices and perspectives, enriching our understanding of the diverse experiences within higher education.
By anonymising submissions, we aim to encourage a candid and uninhibited exploration of topics that may otherwise remain unspoken, ensuring that sensitive or contentious issues can be addressed with honesty and depth. This anonymity serves as a powerful tool to liberate voices, allowing contributors to write about personal experiences, professional dilemmas, or systemic challenges without concern for personal or professional repercussions.
Submit your poem via this MS Form, by 17:00 GMT on Monday 8 April 2024. The theme is ‘Higher Education’, with no restrictions on style or length. Need help starting? Check out my guide on writing reflective poems.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ This post is opinion-based and does not reflect the views of the London School of Economics and Political Science or any of its constituent departments and divisions. _____________________________________________________________________________________________
Sam, this is brilliant… “I’m Sam Illingworth, researcher, teacher, and poet. My practice involves using poetry to help connect different communities, bridge academic disciplines and foster inclusive dialogues. In my LSE HE Blog Fellowship, I aspire to encourage others in higher education to discover the potential of poetry in enriching our personal and professional lives.”
This Friday, I’m doing a podcast episode entitled, “The Meta-Crisis, It’s Too Late For Anything But Art” reinforcing the point you make about poetry having a unique value in the world, in both traditional and non-traditional settings… (https://youtube.com/@poetrypassionpleasure)
Thanks so much Dale! 🙂
Sam
Indepth reasoning makes me rethink about poetry. While there may be challenges in using poetry for assessment, I have no doubt that it is an effective tool for instruction and experience.
This is great to hear. I think that there are definitely challenges, but IMHO the benefits much outweigh these. 🙂
I love the ways you’ve suggested we think of integrating poetry into teaching and staff development. I know you mention the necessity to think about fairness in grading for people who aren’t comfortable with poetry, but I think we can flip this: there are people who are constantly uncomfortable with the ways we normally assess via formal/scholarly writing and exams, and we never question the fairness of those methods. I think having an outlet via poetry is a brilliant idea, and your post reminded me that I user to encourage learners to experiment with two-sides poetry (like two authors representing two sides) and also poems that can be read forward and backward to make different meanings. I might use that again this semester! Thanks for the inspiration!
I wanted to contribute a poem I co-authored with a student to your collection, but I don’t want us to be anonymous, particularly because our positionality is essential to understanding the poem. Is it possible to not make it anonymous?
Thanks so much Maha! And yes, of course. You can deanonymise. Just make a note of this on the submission. I suspect others might feel the same as you as well.
Hi again Sam.
The work is sublime. Lets try to make some time to talk and publish.
Tom
Thank you Tom! And yes, for sure. I will be in touch. 😀
This is great! I just had a nosey at some of the poems and they are so powerful.
I am looking forward to reading more (and also contributed).
Thanks so much Nathalie 🙌