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Part 1: ‘True Receivers': Rilke and the Contemporary Poetics of Listening In this part of this thesis I argue that a contemporary ‘poetics of listening' has emerged in the UK, and explore the writing of three of our most significant poets - John Burnside, Kathleen Jamie and Don Paterson - to find out why they have become interested in the idea of the poet as a ‘listener'. I suggest that the appeal of this listening stance accounts for their engagement with the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, who thought of himself as a listening ‘receiver'; it is proposed that Rilke's notion of ‘receivership' and the way his poems relate to the earthly (or the ‘non-human') also account for the general ‘intensification' of interest in his work. An exploration of the shifting status of listening provides context for this study, and I pay particular attention to the way innovations in audio and communications technology influenced Rilke's late sequences the Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus. A connection is made between Rilke's ‘listening poetics' and the ‘listening' stance of Ted Hughes and Edward Thomas; this establishes a ‘listening lineage' for the contemporary poets considered in the thesis. I also suggest that there are intriguing similarities between the ideas of listening that are emerging in contemporary poetics and Hélène Cixous' concept of ‘écriture féminine'. Exploring these similarities helps us to understand the implications of the stance of the poet-listener, which is a counter to the idea that as a writer you must ‘find your voice'. Finally, it is proposed that ‘a poetics of listening' would benefit from an enriched taxonomy. Part 2 of the thesis is a collection of my poems entitled ‘Small Weather'.

District improvement research highlights the importance of central office leaders and building principals in reform efforts. A growing body of literature emphasizes the importance of the relationship between central office leaders and principals in the context of turnaround school reform. Drawing on research from Honig (2012), the assistance relationship consistently surfaced as a key element of success when selecting and implementing learning time as a turnaround measure. This study aims to explore the assistance relationship between central office leaders and principals in the selection and implementation of learning time. This qualitative study draws upon observations and document review to answer the research questions, and is one strand of a larger research project studying how central office leaders support principals through an assistance relationship in a district in receivership. This individual strand concludes that the selection and implementation of learning time opportunities, without consideration to the principals and without the assistance of central office leaders, can’t happen. This strand advances our understanding of how an effective assistance relationship can work in a district in receivership. I concluded that central office leaders and principals interviewed selected and implemented like learning time opportunities. Future researchers may continue to enrich this growing body of literature by examining these findings and testing all or some of the five key practices in a like district. The results, implications for districts in receivership, and future research are discussed. This strand’s findings can serve as a companion for central office leaders who are working with principals to select and implement learning time opportunities in order to improving achievement levels in underperforming schools and districts across our country.