Using a poetry wiki: How can the medium support pre-service teachers of English in their professional learning about writing poetry and teaching poetry writing in a digital age?
Abstract
In this paper we report on one aspect of a qualitative study about an online wiki community, which was developed to build collaborative knowledge about poetry among a group of pre-service English teachers. Our paper explores pre-service teachers’ experiences of writing in a digital medium and their perceptions of themselves as writers. We focus specifically on the processes of poetry writing (both collaborative and independent) undertaken in this digital medium by two groups of teachers, who were working in contrasting settings in the UK and Canada during their pre-service year. We investigate the affordances (Laurillard, Stratford, Lucklin, Plowman, & Taylor, 2000) that a multimodal, wiki environment offered these teachers for learning about poetry writing and question the impact that these affordances have had both on the teachers’ collaborations and the poetry they wrote. In analysing the pre-service teachers’ wiki writings we were interested to observe how they shaped themselves as writers and intervened in each other’s work in progress within a digital third space. We also wanted to explore how the wiki had supported their professional learning about the teaching of poetry writing during their training year and the implications that this support could have for their own future classroom practice as teachers of writing.
Reference
Dymoke, S., & Hughes, J. (2009). Using a poetry wiki: How can the medium support pre-service teachers of English in their professional learning about writing poetry and teaching poetry writing in a digital age? English Teaching: Practice & Critique (University of Waikato), 8(3), 91–106.
Journal
English Teaching: Practice and Critique
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
no
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
- English Language Arts (ELA)
Research Location Context
Preservice Participants
- Post bachs (university based program)
- Undergraduates (university based program)
Preservice Sample Size
56
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
- assignments
- Observations
- online discussions
- Online response
- Questionnaires
Data Analysis Tools
Researcher Positionality
- Inside (studying their own practices)
Research Questions
What affordances did a multimodal, wiki environment offer a group of preservice teachers for learning about poetry writing?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Combination
What is the impact that these affordances had both on the teachers’
collaborations and the poetry they wrote?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Combination