Working role of women in a pandemic world: a poetic inquiry

Purpose The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people globally, and it has exacerbated the existing gender inequalities that have affected women. The purpose of this study is to understand the perceptions of women concerning gender inequality in the workplace during the current pandemic. The goal is to give women a voice so they can explain their feelings regarding the problems they face in a pandemic world. Design/methodology/approach In this study, four poetic inquiries were developed to investigate how the lives of working women were changed during the pandemic in Italy. Poetic methodology is a creative and aesthetic representation of qualitative research that is capable of reporting data with more fluidity and freedom. Findings The results suggest that the gender gap is increasing and is embodied in a series of relational and economic problems related to remote work, in difficulty in reconciling private and work life and in a series of new telematic violence against women. Practical implications This study offers practical implications for policymakers by suggesting the application of diversity management initiatives to remove barriers to gender equality. Originality/value This study, through a poetic approach, is the first to investigate women's perceptions during the pandemic related to difficulties experienced in the work sphere.

Providing an Authentic Voice? Understanding Migrant Homelessness through Critical Poetic Inquiry

Ethical considerations in social research tend to focus on data collection rather than data interpretation and representation. The tendency of qualitative research to limit ethical concern to confidentiality and anonymity in the representation of data, combined with the academic convention of maintaining an objective distance from the object of study, creates tensions for the reflexive researcher. On the one hand, they must meet academic expectations to communicate findings with demonstrable reliability and validity. At the same time, there are deontological obligations—to protect study participants (and groups they represent) from harm, to honour their contributions accurately and to report with integrity. This article argues for the use of poetic ‘re-presentation’, both as a form of inquiry and unique mode of data representation and as a means of obtaining a deeper understanding of the experience of migration and homelessness. By integrating insights from Critical Race Methodology, the article deploys the concept of ‘counter-storytelling’ through poetic inquiry. The article concludes that this approach enables a nuanced, insightful approach, allowing the authentic voice of migrant groups negotiating the complexities of homelessness to be clearly articulated and heard.

“Gratitude to Old Teachers”: Leaning into Learning Legacies

Amongst a group of poet-scholar friends, all of us students of the American poet Robert Bly, often speak of our “gratitude to old teachers,” the title from one of Bly’s (1999) poems. We cherish a meditative awareness of deeply rooted presences holding us up, buoying us as we stride across “Water that once could take no human weight” that now “holds up our feet / And goes on ahead of us ….” What is this mystery? Through the love and support of “old teachers,” we are held, led, and supported, into an unknown future that, without their guidance, we might never have reached. Many of Bly’s students (myself included) refer to how meeting him “changed” or even “saved” their lives. Similarly, I could say this of meeting and studying with Canadian curriculum scholar and poet Carl Leggo. Practicing gratitude to old teachers fosters vital pedagogic engagement and personal connection in a world often fraught with isolation and despair. Reflecting on how these poetic influences have inspired and guided my own personal and professional life, this essay ruminates on grateful legacies within literary and curriculum studies, and beyond. Keywords: gratitude, curriculum studies, mentorship, poetry, poetic inquiry

Les concepts en mouvement : une méthode basée sur la poésie pour la visite de groupe dans l’exposition d’art contemporain

Résumé : L’objectif de cet article consiste à présenter ma méthode de recherche des concepts en mouvement basée sur la poésie pour la visite de groupe dans l’exposition d’art contemporain. Cette méthode s’élabore en dialogue avec l’approche pédagogique de l’équipe de l’éducation à la Fondation PHI qui s’ancre dans la notion de mouvement et dans la méthodologie des concepts migratoires (Bal, 2002). Ma pédagogie féministe basée sur les concepts en mouvement est une extension des concepts migratoires, mais elle s’en distingue en se situant spécifiquement dans l’écriture poétique née d’une fulgurance de conscience-lucidité qui connecte mon corps-sujet avec l’affect de l’œuvre. Mots-clés : Recherche poétique; Art contemporain; Éducation à l’art; Pédagogie du mouvement; Philosophie féministe; Corporéité; Poésie comme pédagogie. Abstract: The purpose of this article is to introduce my poetry-based research method that draws from concepts in movement to develop group visits within contemporary art exhibitions. This method was conceived in dialogue with the pedagogical approach of the PHI Foundation’s Education Team, which is anchored in the travelling concepts’ methodology (Bal, 2002). Although an extension of travelling concepts, my feminist pedagogical approach is distinct because it is rooted in poetic writing which emerges in response to a lucid awareness of the connection between my body-as-subject and the artwork’s affect. Keywords: Poetic inquiry; Contemporary art; Art education; Pedagogy of movement; Feminist philosophy; Embodiment; Poetry as pedagogy

Beyond Disciplines: Spoken Word as Participatory Arts-based Research

For many, the arts and sciences stand at opposite ends of an unbridgeable divide: the sciences, rigid, objective, systematic and authoritative; the arts, fluid, subjective, dynamic and capricious. Yet, there is a long history of productive dialogue and interconnection between these fields. Arts-based research represents a particularly fertile form of arts/science interaction. This paper interweaves poetry, theoretical discussion and empirical research to make the case for spoken word poetry as an arts-based method of inquiry that can provide a radically different way of doing, being and collaborating in and through research. With reference to the innovative method of ‘collaborative poetics’ and to the work of youth slam/spoken word educators, I argue that social scientists and spoken word practitioners can learn much from one another’s tools, techniques and ways of thinking, creating new forms of knowledge, redefining the audience/author relationship, and facilitating a ‘critical resilience’ which enables both individual fortitude in the face of adversity and a means through which to challenge the conditions that give rise to this adversity. The paper thus considers how spoken word as participatory poetic inquiry enables participants, researchers and poets to address the critical complexities and challenges of contemporary life.

Reflecting on Violent Ruptures and Loss in Qualitative Research: A Poetic Inquiry

Presenting poetic approaches to qualitative inquiry, two immigrant educational researchers from different minoritized communities explore their loss of research participants due to increased state-enforced violence in the context of recent immigration policies (e.g., increased presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in immigrant communities and anti-Muslim rhetoric) through poetic inquiry. Presenting the processes and products of engaging with participant loss through poetry, the authors highlight a theoretical and methodological approach to qualitative inquiry, which works toward building intimacies among women of color feminist educational researchers. On the one hand, this work aims to develop qualitative methodologies that seek to reduce harm and violence and foster understanding among different communities of researchers and their participants. On the other hand, it seeks to illustrate how poetic approaches to qualitative research can be used as a reflexive tool to explore the hidden socio-emotional components of the educational research process.