The Found Poem as a Pedagogical Strategy for Promoting Self-Authorship for Practice

This chapter explores the question does the use of the found poem—a poem constructed by assembling a series of phrases from a series of readings—promote self-authorship in a professionally oriented graduate program. The chapter begins by arguing that self-authorship is a necessary condition to being an effective practitioner, followed by outlining self-authorship, its relationship to practice and higher education. This is then followed by laying out the practice context for the use of the found poem, a graduate course in the Capacity Development and Extension program at the University of Guelph. We then discuss the use of the found poem and how its use changed over time. In the following section two former participants in the class, who are now practitioners, share their reflections on the found poem followed by the instructor's reflections. We then discuss the implications for its use and attempt to answer the question does the found poem facilitate the development of self-authorship?