Found by the Poem

Abstract

In Part 1 I set the groundwork for my poetic inquiry, describing the alternative education context in New Zealand and how poetry became central to my research approach. A grassroots initiative from the mid-1990s, alternative education centres were established by communities to meet the needs of young people who became disenfranchised from secondary schools in the wake of neo-liberal reforms to education. Many centres employed tutors, rather than qualified teachers, to provide a holistic education. As a teacher having worked with tutors, I witnessed the artful ways tutors engaged young people in learning. Curiosity about tutor practice and understanding their contribution to our knowledge of teaching and learning became the motivation for my study. In this section, I introduce my phenomenological poetic methodology. Central to the development of my inquiry, was a turn in my methodological thinking after noticing the poetic nature of tutors’ everyday discourse. I was found by the poem. Parallel to understanding tutor identity I explore the emergence of my research identity as a poet-scholar. I conclude with introducing each of the tutor research participants through poem.