Poetics of Curriculum, Poetics of Life (An Exploration of Poetry in the Context of Selves, Schools, and Society)

Through multiple lenses of curriculum studies, the author explores how poetry is situated in the pedagogical world. Her work aims to illuminate how poetry is studied in schools and how these practices of studying poetry give poetry its cultural identity. Each chapter is guided by insight from John Dewey’s Art as Experience which promotes explorations of opportunities for students to have profound experiences with poetry and art in schools. The purpose of this book is not to offer a prescription for teachers to use in their classrooms. This is not an outline regarding how someone should include poetry in a lesson plan. Rather, the author explores why poetry is important in our lives and how poetry can contribute to opening avenues for new possibilities through imagination and transformation based on phenomenological experience and scholarship. She explores poetry through Dewey’s notion of aesthetics across diverse aspects of meaning making through poetry in a contemporary context. She also explores the influences that poetry has on the curriculum of our lives, and the influence that our lived curriculum has on the future of poetry.