The Wiki-Ed Poetry Project focuses on secondary English teacher candidates’ attitudes toward poetry in general, and more specifically, their feelings and ideas about the teaching of poetry. Teacher candidates from two education programs (one in the UK and one in Canada) discuss their initial attitudes toward poetry, their definitions of poetry and their feelings about the prospect of teaching poetry, as well as compare their schooled experiences with poetry and their initial experiences teaching poetry during field placements. The research traces their shifting views of poetry and poetry teaching as they immerse themselves in reading, writing and discussing poetry in a wiki environment. The wiki, a collaborative and editable digital space, breaks down spatial and temporal barriers and allows the teacher candidates to collectively participate in knowledge construction around poetry and poetry teaching. Much has been written about the problems associated with teaching poetry. More than other genres such as novels, non-fiction or plays, poetry seems to elicit the most “groans” from students. Often English Language Arts teachers report feeling less comfortable teaching poetry than fiction, non-fiction or drama, either because they aren’t sure how to teach it effectively (owing to lack of pedagogical role models), or because they find it elusive themselves. Preservice teacher candidates routinely report negative schooled experiences with poetry. In their initial discussion, they reported that as students of poetry they felt poetry was “challenging, intimidating, boring and limiting” and they were “frustrated” with what they felt was an adherence to “structure, rules, and constraints”. They shared stories of having to “endure line-by-line dissection”, “endlessly hunting for the ‘right’ message” and having their creative work “arbitrarily marked”. These comments support the existing body of literature around students’ resistance to poetry (Andrews, 1991; Benton, 1999, 2000; Pike, 2000) and our decision to centre a wiki project on poetry was due in part to those comments. It is not surprising, given their own experiences with poetry, that many preservice teacher candidates feel anxious about the prospect of teaching poetry themselves. Ensuring that beginning teachers are comfortable and prepared to teach poetry is particularly important given the transformative potential of the genre. Poetry should have a central place in all of our lives, not only for the aesthetic pleasure it affords, but also for its ability to awaken our senses, connect us with ourselves and others, and lead us to think in synthesizing ways, as required by its use of the language of metaphor (Michaels, 1999). Poetry’s conciseness, its brevity, and its power to convey so much in such a limited space is its appeal (Peacock, 1999). Poetry encourages an economy and precision in language that transfers to other types of oral and written communication. Poetry is more than a vehicle for expression; it is also a way of knowing. Poetry both requires and facilitates a concentration of mind or sustained attention to which our hectic lives have unaccustomed us. Poetry transforms the way we see the commonplace through new and fresh perspectives. Despite all of this, poetry remains marginalized in many English classrooms. The Wiki-Ed poetry project supports the process of ‘writing for discovery’ in a collaborative knowledge building environment in which teacher candidates can not only explore poetry and poetry teaching, but also consider how the use of ‘social software’ like wikis are reshaping the social environments of their students and how they might be utilized in educational contexts.

This is a qualitative study. Using a constructivist grounded theory and working from the assumption that we are embodied, social and situated beings, a multiliteracies approach promotes “immersion in meaningful practices within a community of learners who are capable of playing multiple and different roles based on their backgrounds and experiences” (New London Group, 1996, p. 33). Such a pedagogy draws on the expertise and experiences of all members of the community, and takes into account the “affective and sociocultural needs and identities” of all learners in the group. Data takes the form of written comments and reflections. One-on-one follow-up semi-structured interviews with selected participants are also used. Data was first analysed using independent coding which was then shared and recoded by both researchers. The wiki participants were all postgraduates preparing to enter the teaching profession. They were drawn from 55 secondary English beginning teachers based in an Higher Education Institution (HEI), and two university instructors, all of whom have given consent for us to use the material for research purposes. All names used are pseudonyms to preserve confidentiality of the participants.

The Wiki-Ed poetry project supports the process of ‘writing for discovery’ in a collaborative knowledge building environment in which teacher candidates can not only explore poetry and poetry teaching, but also consider how the use of ‘social software’ like wikis are reshaping the social environments of their students and how they might be utilized in educational contexts. The project was designed to have a significant impact on the practice of beginning teachers, not only in the area of poetry, but also in the area of digital literacy.