In this paper the focus is on the possibilities that poetry and prose offer as pedagogical tools that can both accommodate and address difficult and painful knowledges. The paper presents and analyses poems and prose written by students at a non-traditional secondary school for disadvantaged girls (many of whom identify as Indigenous Australian). Through stories of grief and pain, but also hope and possibility, the poetry/prose book signifies a sense of collective political agency against oppressive relations towards the girls creating new moulds of existence. Contra to dominant approaches to recognising and valuing Indigeneity in schools, these writings represent Indigenous culture as a complex, dynamic and contingent social practice. While it is contended that a valuing of marginalised cultures is an important aspect of cultural recognition, the paper argues that a broader and more critical focus is required in beginning to address Indigenous oppressions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
POETRY (Literary form), CURRICULUM, TEACHING, ENGLISH teachers, HIGH school seniors, TEENAGERS, SECONDARY education, EDUCATION, ATTITUDE (Psychology)
Abstract
This article reports on a participant-centred research project with English teachers in a senior secondary college in Melbourne, Australia. It builds on previous research (Weaven and Clark 2009, 2011), which showed a low take-up of the opportunities to teach poetry in Victoria's senior secondary English curriculum. This study explores the reasons why teachers of English are unwilling to use poetry texts in their senior classes. The teachers who participated in this study discussed and documented their attitudes towards the teaching of poetry and explored with each other the pedagogical challenges associated with teaching poetry. Their discussions - an analysis of which forms the empirical core of this article - reveal a range of explanations for teachers' reservations about offering poetry to their students. Importantly, these teachers were able to use professional discussion as a means to consider what changes in teaching practice could be successfully developed to facilitate more time spent on the teaching of poetry in senior secondary classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
This article focuses on the rise of women's poetry in the 1970s in New South Wales. The author traces the complex relationship between women's poetry and the radical small press scene of the late 1960s and early 1970s. She traces how poets of both sexes were discussing revolution in terms of authorship and publishing. This will then give light on how gender was taken up and used within this discourse of transformation.