Is There a Definition? Ruminating on Poetic Inquiry, Strawberries and the Continued Growth of the Field
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18432/ari29356Keywords:
poetic inquiry, poetry, research methods, arts-based research, ruminationAbstract
Over the last ten years, Poetic Inquiry (PI) has proven itself as an emergent arts-based research methodology. It has gained greater acceptance in the larger community of qualitative research due in large part to the hundreds of published studies that employ the writing or analysis of poetry as a major focus of the research process (Finley, 2003; Prendergast, Leggo & Sameshima, 2009; Prendergast & Galvin, 2012). However, despite this greater acceptance and increase in studies found in the literature, there has not been a critical contemporary exploration of the history, theory and method of PI that could lend itself to defining what the method is, for those unfamiliar with it. This article provides a summary of PI as it exists in the literature today. This includes surveying the rhizomatic history of the method, exploring debates around who should or should not use the method and conversation around the current uses of PI in qualitative research.
References
ABER SIG. (n.d.). In Arts-based Educational Research (ABER). Retrieved from http://www.abersig.com/
AERA. (2018). In American Educational Research Association. Retrieved from http://www.aera.net/
Allsopp, R. (2015). To step, leap, fly: On poetics and performance. Performance Research - A Journal of Performing Arts, 20(1), 1-3.
Anderson, C. & MacCurdy, M. (2000). Writing and healing: toward an informed practice. Urnana, Il: National Council of Teachers of English.
Apol, L. (2017). Writing poetry in Rwanda: A means for better listening, understanding, processing, and responding. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 30(2), 71-13. doi:10.1080/08893675.2017.1266188
Art/Research International. (2018). In Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal Retrieved from https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/ari
ARTS. (n.d.). In Arts Researchers and Teachers Society. Retrieved from http://artssig.wixsite.com/artssig
Barone, T. (2001). Science, art, and the predispositions of educational researchers. Educational Researcher, 30(7), 24-28. doi:10.3102/0013189X030007024
Black, C., & Enos, R. (1981). Using phenomenology in clinical social work: A poetic pilgrimage. Clinical Social Work Journal, 9(1), 34-43. doi:10.1007/BF0075709
Bloom, H. (1973). The anxiety of influence: A theory of poetry (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Bochner, A. P. (2000). Criteria against ourselves. Qualitative Inquiry, 6(2), 266-272. doi:10.1177/107780040000600209
Brady, I. (1991). Anthropological poetics. Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Brady, I. (2004). In defense of the sensual: Meaning construction in ethnography and poetics. Qualitative Inquiry, 10(4), 622-644. doi:10.1177/1077800404265719
Butler-Kisber, L. (2002). Artful portrayals in qualitative inquiry: The road to found poetry and beyond. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 48(3), 229-238.
Butler-Kisber, L. (2017). Lynn Butler-Kisber defines poetic inquiry [Streaming video]. SAGE Research Methods. Retrieved from http://methods.sagepub.com/video/lynn-butler-kisber-defines-poetic-inquiry
Cahnmann, M. (2003). The craft, practice, and possibility of poetry in educational research. Educational Researcher, 32(3), 29-36.
Carroll, P., Dew, K., & Howden-Chapman, P. (2011). The heart of the matter: Using poetry as a method of ethnographic inquiry to represent and present experiences of the informally housed in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(7), 623-630.
Carruth, H. (1948). The poet with wounds. Poetry, 71(4), 217-221.
Christianakis, M. (2011). Hybrid texts: Fifth graders, rap music, and writing. Urban Education, 46(5), 1131-1168. doi:10.1177/0042085911400326
CSSE. (n.d.). In Canadian Society for the Study of Education. Retrieved from https://csse-scee.ca/
De La Lama, L. (2014). Creating a mythopoeic graphic novel to expand self- understanding. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation.) University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. Retrieved from http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5622/
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1988). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (2011). Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (pp. 1-20). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
DeShazer, M. K. (1986). Inspiring women: Reimagining the muse. New York: Perganon.
Dobson, M. L. (2012). Poetic inquiry. The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, 6(5), 129-138. doi:10.18848/1833-1866/CGP/v06i05/36082
Downey, H. (2016). Poetic inquiry, consumer vulnerability: Realities of quadriplegia. Journal of Marketing Management, 32(3-4), 357-364. doi:10.1080/0267257X.2015.1103301
Eiseley, L. C. (1972). Notes of an alchemist. New York: Scribner.
Eisner, E. W. (1991). The enlightened eye. New York: Macmillan.
Eisner, E. W. (1997). The promise and perils of alternative forms of data representation. Educational Researcher, 26(6), 4-10. doi:10.2307/1176961
Ellis, C. (1999). Heartful autoethnography. Qualitative Health Research, 9(5), 669-683. doi:10.1177/104973299129122153
Ely, M. (1997; 2003). On writing qualitative research: Living by words (1st ed.). Washington, DC; Falmer Press. doi:10.4324/9780203451427
Faulkner S. L. (2007). Concern with craft: Using ars poetica as criteria for reading research poetry. Qualitative Inquiry, 13(2), 218-234. doi: 10.1177/107780040629563610.1177
Faulkner, S. L. (2016a). Poetry as method: Reporting research through verse. New York: Taylor & Francis eBooks. doi: 10.4324/9781315422411
Faulkner, S. L. (2016b). The art of criteria: Ars criteria as demonstration of vigor in poetic inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 22(8), 662-665. doi:10.1177/1077800416634739
Fels, L. (2012). Collecting data through performative inquiry: A tug on the sleeve. Youth Theatre Journal, 26(1), 50-60. doi:10.1080/08929092.2012.678209
Fels, L., & Belliveau, G. A. (2008). Exploring curriculum: Performative inquiry, role drama, and learning. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press.
Flores, T. (1982). Field poetry. Anthropology and Humanism Quarterly, 7(1), 16-22.
Furman, R. (2004). Using poetry and narrative as qualitative data: Exploring a father’s cancer through poetry. Families, Systems, & Health, 22(2), 162-710.
Furman, R. (2014). Beyond the literary uses of poetry: A class for university freshmen. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 27(4), 205-211. doi:10.1080/08893675.2014.949521
Furman, R., & Cavers, S. (2005). A narrative poem as a source of qualitative data. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 32(4), 313-317. doi:10.1016/j.aip.2005.02.004
Furman, R., Lietz, C., & Langer, C. L. (2006). The research poem in international social work: Innovations in qualitative methodology. The International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(4), 24-34.
Gee, J. P. (1989). The narrativization of experience in the oral style. Journal of Education, 171(1), 75-96. doi:10.1177/002205748917100106
Glesne, C. (1997). That rare feeling: Re-presenting research through poetic transcription. Qualitative Inquiry, 3(2), 202-221. doi:10.1177/107780049700300204
Görlich, A. (2016). Poetic inquiry: Understanding youth on the margins of education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 29(4), 520-535. doi:10.1080/09518398.2015.1063734
Grimmett, H. (2016). The problem of "just tell us": Insights from playing with poetic inquiry and dialogical self theory. Studying Teacher Education, 12(1), 37-54.
Hanauer, D. I. (2010). Poetry as research: Exploring second language poetry writing. Amsterdam, NL: John Benjamins Pub. Co.
Hartnett, S. J. (2003). Incarceration nation: Investigative prison poems of hope and terror. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Hasebe-Ludt, E., Chambers, C., & Leggo, C. D. (2009). Life writing and literary métissage as an ethos for our times. New York: Peter Lang.
Hasebe-Ludt, E., & Leggo, C. (2016). Provoking a curricular métissage of polyphonic textualities. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 14(1), 1- 5. Retrieved from http://jcacs.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jcacs/issue/view/2276/showToc
Hume, M. (Director) & James, K. (Composer). (2017, April). Knowledge through eight windows: Soundscape and poetry performed. Presentation at the Language and Literacy Graduate Conference, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Irwin, R. L., Beer, R., Springgay, S., Grauer, K., Xiong, G., & Bickel, B. (2006). The rhizomatic relations of a/r/tography. Studies in Art Education, 48(1), 70-88.
ISPI. (2018). In International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry. Retrieved from http://www.poeticinquiry.ca/history.html
James, K. (2009). Cut-up consciousness: Poetic inquiry and the spambot's text. In M. Prendergast, C. Leggo & P. Sameshima (Eds.), Poetic inquiry: Vibrant voices in the social sciences (pp. 59-74). Rotterdam, NL: Sense Publishers.
James, K. (2017). What lovely words might also mean. In P. Sameshima, K. James, C. Leggo & A. Fidyk (Eds.), Poetic inquiry III, (pp 23-26). Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 24-26.
JCACS. (2017). In Journal of the Canadian Association of Curriclum Studies. Retrieved from http://jcacs.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jcacs/index
Kincheloe, J. L. (2001). Describing the bricolage: Conceptualizing a new rigor in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(6), 679-692. doi:10.1177/107780040100700601
King, A. (1995). Giving permission to embodied knowing to inform nursing research methodology: The poetics of voice(s). Nursing Inquiry, 2(4), 227-234. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1800.1995.tb00152.x
Kreider, K. (2015). Material poetics and the “communication event”: A theory and critical framework for artworks at a crossover between poetry and text-based art. Performance Research - A Journal of Performing Arts, 20(1), 80-89.
Lahman, M. K. E., Geist, M. R., Rodriguez, K. L., Graglia, P. E., Richard, V. M., & Schendel, R. K. (2010). Poking around poetically: Research, poetry, and trustworthiness. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(1), 39-48. doi:10.1177/1077800409350061
Lahman, M. K. E., & Richard, V. M. (2014). Appropriated poetry: Archival poetry in research. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(3), 344-355. doi:10.1177/1077800413489272
Lahman, M. K. E., Rodriguez, K. L., Richard, V. M., Geist, M. R., Schendel, R. K., & Graglia, P. E. (2011). (Re)forming research poetry. Qualitative Inquiry, 17(9), 887- 896. doi:10.1177/1077800411423219
Lambert, K. (2016). “Capturing” queer lives and the poetics of social change. Continuum, 30(5), 576-586. doi:10.1080/10304312.2016.1210800
Leavy, P. (2010). A/r/t: A poetic montage. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(4), 240-243. doi:10.1177/1077800409354067
Leavy, P. (2015). Method meets art: Arts-based research practice (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Leggo, C. D. (1997). Teaching to wonder responding to poetry in the secondary classroom. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press.
Leggo, C. (1999). Research as poetic rumination: Twenty-six ways of listening to light. The Journal of Educational Thought (JET), 33(2), 113-133.
Leggo, C. (2003). Calling the muses: A poet's ruminations on creativity in the classroom. Education Canada, 43(4). 12-15.
Leggo, C. (2005). Pedagogy of the heart: Ruminations on living poetically. The Journal of Educational Thought (JET), 39(2), 175-195.
Leggo, C. (2007). Writing truth in classrooms: Personal revelation and pedagogy. International Journal of Whole Schooling, 3(1), 27-37.
Leggo, C. (2008). Astonishing silence: Knowing in poetry. In J. G. Knowles & A. L. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research: Perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues (pp. 166-175). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. doi: 10.4135/9781452226545.n14
Leggo, C. (2012). Living language: What is a poem good for? Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 10(2), 141-160.
Leggo, C. (2015). Loving language: A poet’s vocation and vision. In S. Walsh, B. Bickel, & C. Leggo, Arts-based and contemplative practices in research and teaching: Honouring presence (pp. 141-168). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Leggo, C., Sinner, A. E., Irwin, R. L., Pantaleo, K., Gouzouasis, P., & Grauer, K. (2011). Lingering in liminal spaces: A/r/tography as living inquiry in a language arts class. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 24(2), 239-256. doi:10.1080/09518391003641908
Lengelle, R. (2008). Blossoms and balsam: Poems that reveal and heal. Edmonton, AB: Black Tulip Press.
MacNeil, C. (2000). The prose and cons of poetic representation in evaluation reporting. American Journal of Evaluation, 21(3), 359-367. doi:10.1016/S1098- 2140(01)00100-X
McCulliss, D. (2013). Poetic inquiry and multidisciplinary qualitative research. Journal of Poetry Therapy: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research, and Education, 26(2), 83-114. doi:10.1080/08893675.2013.794536
Neilsen, L. (2008). Lyric inquiry. In J. G. Knowles & A. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of the arts in qualitative research (pp. 93-102). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. doi:10.4135/9781452226545.n8
Ng-A-Fook, N., Ibrahim, A., & Reis, G. (2016;). Provoking curriculum studies: Strong poetry and arts of the possible in education. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315738628
Norton, L. M. (2017). Pathways of reflection: Creating voice through life story and dialogical poetry. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 18(1), Art. 9. Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/2516
Öhlén, J. (2003). Evocation of meaning through poetic condensation of narratives in empirical phenomenological inquiry into human suffering. Qualitative Health Research, 13(4), 557-566.
Orr, G. (2002). Poetry as survival. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
Patrick, L. D. (2016). Found poetry: Creating space for imaginative arts-based literacy research writing. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 65(1), 384- 403. doi:10.1177/2381336916661530
Pelias, R. J. (2004). Walking and writing with Laurel Richardson: A story in poems. Studies in Symbolic Interaction, 27(1), 41-53. doi:10.1016/S0163-2396(04)27006-5
Percer, L. H. (2002). Going beyond the demonstrable range in educational scholarship: Exploring the intersections of poetry and research. The Qualitative Report, 7(2), 1- 13. Retrieved from http://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol7/iss2/6
Piirto, J. (2002). The question of quality and qualifications: Writing inferior poems as qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 15(4), 431-445. doi:10.1080/09518390210145507
Poindexter, C. (1998). Poetry as data analysis: Honoring the words of research participants. Reflections, 4(3), 22-25.
Poindexter, C. (2002). Research as poetry: A couple experiences HIV. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(6), 707-714.
Prendergast, M. (2004). “Shaped like a question mark”: Found poetry from Herbert Blau's The Audience. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 9(1), 73-92. doi:10.1080/1356978042000185920
Prendergast, M. (2006). Audience in performance: A poetics and pedagogy of spectatorship. (Unpublished dissertation). University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Prendergast, M. (2009). “Poem is what?” Poetic inquiry in qualitative social science research. International Review of Qualitative Research, 1(4), 541-568.
Prendergast, M. (2010). Reflective praxis through narrative and poetry: Performing peace mum. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 15(1), 79-87. doi:10.1080/13569780903481052
Prendergast, M. (2015). Poetic inquiry, 2007–2012: A surrender and catch found poem. Qualitative Inquiry, 21(8), pp 687-685. doi:10.1177/1077800414563806
Prendergast, M., & Galvin, K. T. (2015). Poetic inquiry II – seeing, caring, understanding. Berlin, DE: Springer Verlag.
Prendergast, M & Belliveau, G. (2013). Performance and poetics. In A. Trainor & E. Graue (Eds), Reviewing qualitative research in the social sciences (pp. 201-204). New York: Routledge.
Prendergast, M., & Galvin, K. T. (2012). Editorial: Naming and expanding the borders of practice in poetic inquiry. Creative Approaches to Research, 5(2), 5-8.
Prendergast, M., Gouzouasis, P., Leggo, C., & Irwin, R. L. (2009). A haiku suite: The importance of music making in the lives of secondary school students. Music Education Research, 11(3), 303-317. doi:10.1080/14613800903144262
Prendergast, M., Leggo, C. D., & Sameshima, P. (2009). Poetic inquiry: Vibrant voices in the social sciences. Rotterdam, NL: Sense Publishers.
Quinn-Hall, C. (2015). Poetics in a capacious landscape. In Prendergast, M., & Galvin, K. T. (Eds). Poetic inquiry II – seeing, caring, understanding (pp. 107-133). Berlin, DE: Springer Verlag.
Rapport, F., & Hartill, G. (2012). Crossing disciplines with ethnographic poetic representation. Creative Approaches to Research, 5(2), 11-25.
Richardson, L. (1992). The poetic representation of lives: Writing a postmodern sociology. Studies in Symbolic Interaction, 13(1). 19-29.
Richardson, L. (1993a). Poetics, dramatics, and transgressive validity: The case of the skipped line. The Sociological Quarterly, 34(4), 695-710. doi:10.1111/j.1533- 8525.1993.tb00113.x
Richardson, L. (1993b). The consequences of poetic representation: Writing the other, rewriting the self. In C.
Ellis & M. Flaherty. (Eds.), Investigating subjectivity: Research on lived experience (pp. 125-137). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Richardson, L. (1994). Nine poems: Marriage and the family. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 23(1), 3-13.
Richardson, L. (1997). Skirting a pleated text: De-disciplining an academic life. Qualitative Inquiry, 3(3), 295-303. doi:10.1177/107780049700300303
Richardson, L. (2000). Writing: A method of inquiry. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln, (Eds), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Richardson, M. (1998). Poetics in the field and on the page. Qualitative Inquiry, 4(4), 451-462. doi:10.1177/107780049800400401
Roberts, S. K., Brasel, N. A., & Crawford, P. A. (2014). Poetry as praxis: An exploration of poetry discourse as qualitative inquiry. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 27(4), 167-181. doi:10.1080/08893675.2014.948262
Rorty, R., & Cambridge Books. (1989). Contingency, irony, and solidarity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rothenberg, J. (1994). "Je est un autre": Ethnopoetics and the poet as other. American Anthropologist, 96(3), 523-524.
Saldaña, J., (2016). Ethnotheatre: Research from page to stage. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. doi:10.4324/9781315428932
Saunders, V., Usher, K., Tsey, K., & Bainbridge, R. (2016). If you knew the end of a story would you still want to hear it? Using research poems to listen to aboriginal stories. Journal of Poetry Therapy: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, Research, and Education, 29(1), 1-13. doi:10.1080/08893675.2016.1133082
Sinner, A., Leggo, C., Irwin, R. L., Gouzouasis, P., & Grauer, K. (2006). Arts-based educational research dissertations: Reviewing the practices of new scholars. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(4), 1223-1270.
Smith, W. N. (2002). Ethno-poetry notes. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 15(4), 461-467.
Tasker, D., Loftus, S., & Higgs, J. (2014). “From the space between us”: The use of poetics as a hermeneutic phenomenological tool within qualitative physiotherapy research. Creative Approaches to Research, 7(2), 4-18.
Tedlock, D. (1983). The spoken word and the work of interpretation. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Vincent, A. R. (2015). Breaking the line. (Unpublished master’s thesis). University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Retrieved from https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0165775
Walsh, S. (2006). An Irigarayan framework and resymbolization in an arts-informed research process. Qualitative Inquiry, 12(5), 976-993. doi:10.1177/1077800406288626
Wiebe, N. G. (2008). Mennocostal musings: Poetic inquiry and performance in narrative research. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 9(2), Art. 42. Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/413/897
Wiebe, S., Yallop, J., Fels, L., Snowber, C., Richardson, P., Honein, N., . . . Leggo, C. (2016). Poetic inquiry of and on play. Canadian Journal of Education, 39(3), 1-26.
Wiggins, J. L., & Monobe, G. (2017). Positioning self in “figured worlds”: Using poetic inquiry to theorize transnational experiences in education. The Urban Review, 49(1), 153-168. doi:10.1007/s11256-016-0386-5
Zimmerman, S. (2002) Writing to heal the soul. New York: Three Rivers Press.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with Art/Research International agree to the following terms:
a. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication and the right to sublicense the Contribution, in the form in which it is published by the journal, to others under the terms and conditions of the of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) that allows others to download the work and share the work with others with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal, but they cannot change the work in any way or use any part of the work commercially.
b. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive public distribution and display of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
d. Authors wishing to include items (such as images or other media, or any creative works of others whether previously published or not) must contact the original copyright holder to obtain explicit permission to publish these items in Art/Research International. Writing permission should include: the title(s) of any copyrighted work, original place of publication if applicable, and an acknowledgement of having read Art/Research International's copyright notice. Authors are responsible for obtaining this permission and keeping it in their own records for later verification.
