Remaking research data into a literary art form makes it resonate more widely. LSE HE Blog Fellow Sam Illingworth explains how and why he turned the LSE HE Blog into a poem

Within qualitative research, particularly in the context of higher education, traditional methods like thematic analysis, content coding, and narrative inquiry have long dominated the field. However, in recent years, a growing interest in alternative methods has opened up new avenues for representing complex and emotional data. One such method is poetic transcription, which creatively transforms qualitative data into poetic forms, offering a fresh way to present research findings. This blog post explores the concept of poetic transcription, explains its value in higher education research, and demonstrates how it was applied to a poem constructed entirely from LSE Higher Education Blog posts.

What is poetic transcription?

At its core, poetic transcription is the process of turning qualitative data – such as interviews, field notes, or written reflections – into a poem. The idea is rooted in the tradition of found poetry, where existing text is reworked into a new artistic form. This approach offers an opportunity to represent research data in a way that can resonate on both intellectual and emotional levels. Of course, the very notion of what is (and is not) a poem is a hotly debated topic, but I use an inclusive definition in that a poem has to have rhythm.

The process involves carefully selecting and arranging lines of text from a dataset, preserving the authenticity of the original voices while creating a piece of poetry that encapsulates the emergent themes. While there are different approaches for how to do this, my own method prevents the researcher from adding any new words to the poem, ensuring that the text remains faithful to its source material. The resulting poem presents a distilled, often more evocative, interpretation of the data, providing an alternative lens through which to understand the narratives and experiences it contains.

Why is poetic transcription useful?

Poetic transcription is especially valuable in higher education research for capturing emotional complexity, which is often difficult to express through traditional analysis. At university, education is more than just intellectual – it’s deeply personal, involving a significant emotional investment from students, staff, and wider communities. Poetry provides a unique method to convey this, distilling emotions such as accomplishment, fulfilment, and frustration into a succinct and powerful form. For example, the sense of achievement when a student overcomes academic challenges or the personal fulfilment that comes from fostering learning communities can be vividly captured through poetic transcription, helping to reveal the nuanced emotional landscape of higher education. Second, this method can help make research findings more accessible. Dense academic prose can sometimes alienate non-specialists, but poetry’s condensed and symbolic nature can make complex ideas more approachable. In the context of higher education, where policymakers, educators, and students may all be stakeholders, using poetry to convey key messages can create broader engagement.

Poetic transcription can provide a platform that amplifies rather than diminishes voices

Finally, poetic transcription encourages researchers to think more critically about representation. In traditional qualitative research, there is always the risk of distorting participants’ voices through over-interpretation. While poetic transcription seeks to foreground their voices by using their own words in a carefully constructed form, it is important to acknowledge the potential risk of dilution. The poetic process inevitably involves selection and framing, which could alter the original intent. However, when done thoughtfully and collaboratively, it can provide a platform that amplifies rather than diminishes voices, potentially offering a more resonant and impactful representation.

Poetic transcription of the LSE HE Blog: identifying key themes

The process began by identifying four key emergent themes from the posts. This was done by reading all the LSE HE Blog posts from July 2023 to August 2024 and looking for any emergent narratives. During this reading, the following four themes emerged:

AI in education. Several blog posts explored the implications of AI on academic integrity, the hype surrounding technological developments, and the nuanced ways in which AI is being integrated into learning and assessment.

Equity and inclusion. Another major theme that emerged was the importance of fostering inclusive learning environments. Several posts highlighted the importance of designing educational spaces that accommodate a diversity of needs.

Crisis responses in higher education. The blog posts dealing with higher education during times of crisis – such as those focused on the situation in Türkiye and the experiences of refugees – offered poignant reflections on the role of universities in supporting communities affected by global crises.

Politics in the classroom. The final theme was the recognition that classrooms are not neutral spaces. These posts revealed the ways in which political tensions and disagreements increasingly shape the higher education experience.

Creating the poem

The process of creating the poem involved combing through each blog post, selecting lines from specific blog posts that encapsulated the key themes identified during the initial reading. The poem in this post was constructed using verbatim lines from 12 different blog posts. No additional words were added, and each line was arranged within the poem to maintain a sense of flow and coherence. For example, lines from a post on academic freedom were interwoven with reflections on AI, helping to create a dialogue between the four emergent themes.

The structure of the poem – with its line breaks, enjambments, and shifts in focus – aims to reflect the complexity of the topics under discussion. Higher education, after all, is not a linear process; it is messy, dynamic, and deeply intertwined with broader social and political issues. By presenting these ideas in poetic form, the hope is to invite readers to engage with the content in a more reflective, perhaps even personal, way.

Voices to be heard

We are riven by harsh,
adamantine conflicts –
academic freedom is never
more important.
Freedom to research,
to think,
to write.
In the active classroom
the invisible cost
of resisting
includes designing
curriculum
and assessment
‘immune’ to it.
Can AI co-design
the perfect experience
as a student –
the truth is everyone
is using it.

Don’t believe the hype.

Technological pessimism
will do little
to address social cohesion.
What is the university today –
what part died
and what part lives.
Higher education is only
one part of a system,
the rightness or wrongness
cannot be determined –
such concessions
are insufficient when
all voices could
be heard.

Bringing narratives to light

Poetic transcription offers an innovative way to explore and communicate the complexities of higher education research. By distilling qualitative data into poetic form, it highlights the emotional depth of issues like AI in education, equity, crisis response, and politics in the classroom. The above poem, created from LSE HE Blog posts, shows how this method can be applied to a variety of data, offering a creative perspective on familiar challenges. For researchers, educators, and students alike, poetic transcription can be a valuable tool for fostering deeper understanding and engagement with the diverse voices that shape higher education today.

However, this approach is not without its limitations. Poetic transcription is inherently subjective, and different researchers (or poets) working with the same data might arrive at entirely different themes and poems. The lines chosen, the order in which they are arranged, and the emphasis placed on certain aspects of the data can vary widely. This means that the poem presented here reflects just one interpretation of the LSE HE Blog posts, shaped by this researcher’s personal and professional lens. Another individual may have highlighted different aspects, creating a poem with a different tone, focus, or thematic structure. This subjectivity does not undermine the value of the method, but rather highlights its flexibility and the multiplicity of meanings that can be drawn from a single dataset.

The blog provides a platform for diverse voices and critical discussions on issues that matter deeply to the academic community

In the context of the LSE HE Blog posts, this method also speaks to the breadth and richness of the topics covered by the blog. From AI in education to the challenges faced by refugees in higher education, the blog provides a platform for diverse voices and critical discussions on issues that matter deeply to the academic community. The posts offer not only scholarly insight but also space for reflection on the social, political, and personal dimensions of higher education. This diversity of content is what makes the LSE HE Blog an ideal source for poetic transcription, as it brings to light the multiple, overlapping narratives that shape the contemporary higher educational landscape.

Breakdown of sources in Voices to be heard

We are riven by harsh, adamantine conflicts

academic freedom is never more important

Freedom to research, to think, to write,

in the active classroom

The invisible cost of resisting

includes designing curriculum and assessment ‘immune’ to it

Can AI co-design the perfect

 experience as a student

the truth is everyone is using it

 Don’t believe the hype

 Technological pessimism

 will do little to address social cohesion

 What is the university today 

what part died

and what part lives

Higher education is only one part of a system

 The rightness or wrongness

cannot be determined

Such concessions are insufficient

 when

 all voices could be heard

_____________________________________________________________________________________________ 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.    _____________________________________________________________________________________________