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Enhancing Student Teacher ReflectivePractice Through PoetryKathleen M. Cowin aa Oregon State University–Cascades Campus , Bend , Oregon , USAPublished online: 24 Oct 2012.

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Enhancing Student Teacher Reflective PracticeThrough Poetry

KATHLEEN M. COWINOregon State University–Cascades Campus, Bend, Oregon, USA

This article describes a seminar process in which poetry is used withstudent teachers to provide a focal point for reflection and intro-spection. Through this reflection process, students have been ableto reflect deeply and personally on their student-teaching experi-ences, on their own personalities in the context of those experiences,and on their relationships with their own students and cooperat-ing teachers. The article includes a description and example of theseminar process used as well as examples of students’ reflections.The literature review includes descriptions of alternative methodsof using poetry as a reflective tool.

INTRODUCTION

As an elementary school principal, the part of my work that I loved mostwas working with beginning teachers. Seeking how to better help beginningteachers led me to my new position as a leader of a graduate-level teacherpreparation program. My current teaching responsibilities include leading thestudent-teaching seminar in which student teachers discuss their experiencesin their placements and seek to integrate their teacher education courseworkwith their developing practice through reflection.

After leading the student-teaching seminar course for a year and oftenseeing my students arrive for the seminar from their student-teaching place-ments worried, upset and sometimes challenged to the point of defeat, Iwondered how I could change the focus of the seminar course to bettermeet the needs of our students. During that first year, I had worked withmy students on developing their reflective practices, but the process I used

Address correspondence to Kathleen M. Cowin, Oregon State University–CascadesCampus, 2600 NW College Way, Bend, OR 97701, USA. E-mail: kathleen.cowin@osucascades.edu

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Enhancing Reflective Practice Through Poetry 309

was rather formal and technical, focusing on redesign and analysis of lessonplanning and classroom management issues. Unfortunately, this process didnot stimulate a great deal of inward, self-reflection and failed to help stu-dents address the emotional and affective aspects of their practices andlives, though the need to do so was clear. Then I thought about my ownexperiences in using poetry as a part of my reflective practice.

As a part of my new position, I have had the opportunity to participate ina group process called Courage to Lead®. This process was developed by theCenter for Courage and Renewal and comes from the work of Parker Palmer(1998, 2004, 2007). The “courage work,” as it is called, uses poetry, stories,and other wisdom traditions, as a focus for self-reflection and discussionfor educators and other helping professionals to examine their own lives,personal and professional, and to be a source of renewal and sustainabilityin their work (Center for Courage and Renewal, 2010; Courage to Lead®

retreats, personal communications, January 2007 to present; Palmer, 1998,2004, 2007).

The process of using poetry in reflection resonated with me and hasenhanced my own reflective practice as a teacher educator. This experienceled me to wonder whether a similar process would provide my studentswith a more personal entry point in the development of their own reflectivepractices. I thought perhaps we could continue to wrestle with the hardquestions of how to meet the challenges of teaching but with a focus onpoetry as a source of reflection, self-examination, renewal, and sustainability.

The second year I taught the seminar course, I began using poetry bothto help our preservice teachers reflect on their lives and on their studentteaching practice and experiences, and as an entry point for discussionsabout how students might find their own methods to support their sus-tainability in the profession, before they even enter it. I have found thatin using poetry in the reflection process, students have been consistentlymore engaged and thoughtful in making connections between their ownpersonalities — their “selves” — and their many and varied experiences. Thediscussions reveal snapshots of how they are integrating their experiencesinto their budding reflective practice and understanding the hard work ofteaching.

In this article, I discuss literature describing and supporting a variety ofother practices related to the use of poetry as a means of stimulating reflec-tion and self-discovery and helping students maintain a “reflective spirit”(Akbari, 2007, p. 201). I then describe the manner in which I have suc-cessfully used the reading of published poetry to stimulate reflection andintrospection in the student-teaching seminar course I teach, an approachbased on my “courage work” experiences. Following this description, I pro-vide a narrative example of the process in practice from one seminar. It ismy hope that other teacher educators may find this or a similar approachto reflection useful in their own work with student teachers. At the very

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least, I hope that readers will take an interest in, and a deeper look into,the use of poetry to enhance students’ reflective practices and to con-sider the importance of helping students develop and maintain a reflectionprocess that takes into account their personalities — reflection that asksthe student to consider “who is the self that teaches” (Palmer, 1998, 2007,p. 4).

THE LITERATURE

As a teacher and administrator with over 30 years of practice, and now as ateacher educator, reflection is vital to my practice and that of my students.The work of Dewey (1933) and Schön (1987) on reflection and reflectivepractice is central to the conceptual framework of the Professional Teacherand Counselor Education unit at my university.

In our program, we continue to teach and equip our students to useformalized, technical, prescribed, reflection processes in certain aspects oftheir practice, such as with lesson planning and in analyzing classroom man-agement issues. However, this type of reflection may ignore other importantpurposes for, and benefits of, reflection. In examining reflective practicesin teacher education, Akbari (2007) cautions against reliance on an overlyacademic, technical approach to the reflection process:

The most important downside of this academic orientation is the realloss of reflective spirit, since reflection is reduced to a set of techniques,instead of being high-order cognitive/affective/socially conscious activity(Jay & Johnson, 2002). A consequence of reducing reflection to a set oftechniques is disregard for teacher personality. . . . It is quite normal totalk of learners being introverts/extroverts, impulsive or thinking, and tohighlight the ways such traits or personality features affect their perfor-mance in the class, and at the same time treat teachers in such a way thatthey have no personality of their own to influence the way they teach.(p. 201)

Akbari’s (2007) concern aligns with Palmer’s (1998, 2007) focus on the “whois the self that teaches” (p. 4) as well as the reflective practices I have experi-enced in my “courage work” (Center for Courage and Renewal, 2010). Usingreflection for this purpose is supported by Gay and Kirkland (2003), who,citing Danielewicz (2001), Gay (2000), Ladson-Billings (2001), Palmer (1998),Schön (1983), Valli (1992), and Zeichner and Liston (1996), posit that “teach-ers knowing who they are as people, understanding the contexts in whichthey teach, and questioning their knowledge and assumptions are as impor-tant as the mastery of techniques for instructional effectiveness” (p. 181).I have found that poetry provides a way for our student teachers to develop

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Enhancing Reflective Practice Through Poetry 311

and maintain the “reflective spirit” that Akbari (2007) spoke of and to exploretheir own personalities, the “who” that teaches, in the context of their ownclassroom experiences.

The successful use of both the reading and writing of poetry to stimulatereflection and learning, to demonstrate personal and professional growth,and even as a therapeutic tool is well documented. Bercik (1999) describedher very positive experience having beginning teachers write biographicpoems, one at the beginning of the year and one at the end of the year.The poems were compared after the end-of-the-year poem was written, con-sistently illustrating the beginning teachers’ growth in understanding over thecourse of the year. Many of the beginning teachers indicated they would usethis technique with their own students.

Ingram (2000) wrote about a process in which he used poetry with hispreservice teaching and counseling students to help them build “a frame-work of respect, understanding and exploration” (p. 9) related to culturaldifferences. Students read “sociocultural” poems, which Ingram himself hadwritten, and then responded in writing to a series of six specific and well-defined prompts. Ingram defines “sociocultural poetry” as “writings thataddress the social, cultural and racial experiences of members of oppressedgroups” (2000, p. 5). Gay and Kirkland (2003) also reported very effective useof “poetry as pedagogy (Kirkland, 2001) [with preservice teachers] to exam-ine critical social and educational issues from the perspective of differentethnic groups” (p. 186).

To deepen their reflections about poverty, the poor, and working withthe poor, Clark (2009) successfully used poetry with her students, preserviceteachers participating in required service-learning activities in situations oragencies in which they would work with the poor. Students kept an elec-tronic journal of their service activities and their thoughts and feelings abouttheir experiences. They also wrote two required reflective poems during thesemester. The first poem, written near the beginning of the term, required aspecific form, as well as a specific “repeated refrain: ‘I am from . . .’” (p. 133).The second poem, with no required form, was written near the end of theterm. Poems were shared in class in a “Poetry-Read-Aloud” during the lastclass of the term. For many of Clark’s students, both the poems and jour-nal entries demonstrated a great deal of growth in understanding of, anddeepening of empathy for, those living in poverty — an understanding andempathy that should benefit the future students of these preservice teacherswhen they enter their own classrooms.

Raingruber (2004) discusses the effective use of both the reading andwriting of poetry for therapeutic purposes and as a way for clinicians, teach-ers, students, and patients/clients to process and reflect on their experiences(p. 18). She suggests to her students and clients that they keep track ofthose experiences, feeling, and memories in writing then look for explana-tory analogies (2004, p. 18). Raingruber also uses the reading of poetry —

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oftentimes her own, written with a specific client concern in mind — withstudents as a way to more deeply engage them in discussions about clients.

John Fox, a poet and poetry therapist, makes a strong case for boththe writing and reading of poetry as tools for deep self-examination andreflection on experiences:

Poetry provides guidance, revealing what you did not know you knewbefore you wrote or read the poem. This moment of surprising yourselfwith your own words of wisdom or of being surprised by the poems ofothers is at the heart of poetry as healer. (1997, p. 3; emphasis in original)

Akhtar (2000) describes the use of poetry to ease mental pain, referring tothe “cultural ointment of poetry” (p. 237).

In the following sections I will describe the poetry reflection processI use in greater detail.

POETRY REFLECTION PROCESS OVERVIEW

We begin each seminar with silent reflection time. I prepare copies of theselected poem and several reflection questions I have written, for all thestudents. Students may use my reflection questions if they wish, but they arealso invited to develop their own questions to guide their reflections. Duringthis time, the students read the poem silently and spend time reflecting onwhat the poem means to them. Then the poem is read aloud to the entireclass, and the students’ reflections are discussed.

I was introduced to the concept of using reflection questions, called “for-mation questions,” in a series of Courage to Lead® retreats, which I attendedwith a group of other educational leaders. Palmer (1998, 2007) focuses onthe purpose of teachers gathering in groups to ask questions of themselvesthat come not from a what, how, or why question format but from ques-tions that focus on the “who” (p. 4). “Formation questions” are open-endedquestions for which there is no one right answer.

In the seminar, the formation questions ask the students to take a threadof the poem — a word, a phrase, a thought, or an image that the poem mayevoke — and use this thread to seek entry into a deeper form of reflec-tion on their lives and experiences. After a silent reading of the poem, it isread aloud. Sometimes it is this thread, the word, phrase, thought, or imagethat the poem carries that evokes meaning for my students followed by aneasiness and embrace of a quiet bit of wait time. Each time I have usedthis process, a student has begun with a comment that flows into thoughtfuldiscussions among the group.

Each week the discussions have amazed me. Sometimes it is a wordor phrase in the poem that resonates with a student, sometimes it is an

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image the poem brings to mind, but the discussions have been consis-tently deep and self-revealing. The discussions often go to those questionsthat cannot be answered by knowledge or skills alone — questions thatinstead require the disposition of working each day to know one’s self moredeeply.

POETRY REFLECTION PROCESS IN DETAIL

Prior to each seminar, I select a poem to be used for student reflection. I usecomments from discussions from previous seminars, concerns students raisein questions to me, and also events that are happening within the schoolsto aid in my poetry selection process. For example, if parent-teacher con-ferences are coming up, I might select poetry that speaks about opennessand diverse perspectives. The poems are often selected for language thatevokes feelings, imagery, locales, events, seasons, celebrations, and relation-ships. I have included in the appendix some potential sources of poetry forreflection, as a starting point for interested readers.

For the students, the process begins when they enter the seminar room.After we exchange greetings, the students pick up a copy of the poem, whichalso includes the formation questions. The students then read the poemsilently, keeping silence in the room until all class members have finishedreading the poem. As reading rates differ, our class procedure for those whohave finished reading the poem silently is to then begin thinking about aword, phrase, or line(s) of the poem that resonates with them. We remainsilent, reading and thinking. I watch the students read silently and whenit seems that everyone has had a chance to read the poem, I read aloudthe formation questions I have developed for that poem. These formationquestions, and most importantly the students’ own questions, are given forconsideration when the poem is read aloud to stimulate further thoughtsabout the poem. Then I invite a member of the class to read the poemaloud. If no one were to volunteer (and this has not happened yet), I wouldread the poem aloud.

After the poem is read aloud, I wait just a bit longer in silence for thestudents to consider whether they have heard anything “new” from the oralreading of the poem. Then I invite the students to share any thoughts orreflections they have from the poem, the formation questions, or their ownquestions. We sit together in silence until someone begins. Often these firstcomments are about a word, phrase, or line of the poem that has meaning forthe student, with the student explaining what the word, line, or image fromthe poem means to them. Each person who wishes to speak is given time todo so. The other students listen without comment. This is a key touchstonein “courage work.” “Courage work” is by invitation so there is no expectationthat each student will participate. Another touchstone of “courage work” is

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that when one does speak, it is not a time for others to “fix” something orto give advice about what is said. This time to talk is to help the one talkinghear more deeply and have a place to explore one’s thoughts.

There has not been a seminar in which students did not speak. In fact,our time could be expanded for these activities. At the end of the discussion,I ask if anyone has anything else to add in reflecting on the poem. Then,students are invited to write a brief written reflection. This written reflec-tion focuses on their own thoughts and can be about the seminar processthat day, other events in student teaching, or their lives. I read these briefwritten reflections after class and respond back to the students in writing.My responses are returned to the students at the end of the following semi-nar. Our process for the seminar, as well as key touchstones, are discussedbefore the first seminar meeting’s poetry reflection is begun and as neededthroughout each term.

POETRY REFLECTION PROCESS IN ACTION

By way of example, I present here a narrative description of the reflectionprocess from one of our seminars. This description is presented in a narrativestyle to provide the reader with a better sense of the feeling and flow of theprocess. For this seminar, I had selected “When Someone Deeply Listensto You” by John Fox (n.d.) for our reflection poem and provided studentswith the following formation questions to consider: Where do you go tobe listened to deeply? Who is among those who listen deeply to you? Whodo you listen for? Your own questions or comments? I selected this poembecause, in the previous seminar, several student teachers had commentedthat their cooperating teachers were not able to take time to talk with themabout the student teachers’ concerns and questions. I had previously hadthe opportunity to use this poem through my participation in a Courage toLead® workshop.

When Someone Deeply Listens To You

When someone deeply listens to youit is like holding out a dented cupyou’ve had since childhoodand watching it fill up withcold, fresh water.When it balances on top of the brim,you are understood.When it overflows and touches your skin,you are loved.

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When someone deeply listens to you,the room where you staystarts a new lifeand the place where you wroteyour first poembegins to glow in your mind’s eye.It is as if gold has been discovered!

When someone deeply listens to youyour barefeet are on the earthand a beloved land that seemed distantis now at home within you.

By John Fox, CPT, © www.poeticmedicine.org, used with permission

After the poem was read silently, then aloud, a spirited discussion beganabout a wide range of topics. For instance, one student commented how thepoem reminded her of what “real listening means.” This student commentedon how she saw her cooperating teacher demand that his fourth grade stu-dents sit quietly at their desks when he is teaching, with the requirementsof “eyes on me, hands and feet quiet,” and how that equals “listening” tothis cooperating teacher. The student teacher noted, however, that when theteacher is listening to a student he may be straightening piles of papers ormarking checklists. This struck the student teacher as a double standard. Shesaid the poem challenged her to listen differently to her students, and thatthe next day she would practice listening deeply to her students by not doingother things when they are talking to her.

Several other student teachers’ reactions and reflections to the poemfocused on how the act of listening is key to the work of a teacher. Onestudent teacher described, in horrific detail, the weekend events for oneof the children in her class. The counselor had asked to meet with thecooperating teacher before school and the cooperating teacher invited thestudent teacher to attend the meeting. The counselor revealed that a childin the class had been staying with his father that weekend and had seen hisfather arrested. The nature of the arrest was very violent and the student sawall of the violence. The counselor was unclear about whether the police hadknown the child was at home with the father when the arrest began. Thechild had to be transported from the scene by the police and held for safetyuntil his mother could be located and came to pick him up.

Both the cooperating teacher and the student teacher had so many ques-tions for the counselor, but there was so little time before the school daybegan and the students would be walking through the classroom door. Thestudent teacher was struck by the deep nature of listening that the poemmade her think about. Why didn’t the counselor have more time right thento listen to their questions about how best to help this student; what about

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scheduling more time to discuss strategies that will be needed in the com-ing weeks and throughout the school year? When would they have time tolisten to the counselor’s ideas and suggestions? Why was there only time forthe counselor to deliver this news and then leave? What about strategies forhelping the child and the cooperating teacher?

This student teacher was thinking about how she had been left won-dering how to structure the child’s reentry into the classroom that day. Shecontinued to reflect on how, in those few minutes before the bell rang, allshe could think of was to just be there for the student and listen. The stu-dent teacher was struck by how the poem helped ease her worries about notknowing what to do or what she should have done. What she instinctivelyfelt was best for the child was just to listen.

Another student teacher related a story about a student in her class whohad been acting out and seemed angry all the time. She didn’t know howto help the student. She was shocked by her cooperating teacher’s stancewith the child, which she characterized as “harsh.” She commented, “Shedoesn’t give him any slack — she is on him for every little thing.” When thestudent teacher tried to talk to the cooperating teacher about the cooperatingteacher’s approach with this student, the cooperating teacher said that it wasbest to handle the student in this manner as he had a critically ill siblingand he uses his sibling’s illness as his excuse for acting out. The studentteacher explained that she was shocked by her cooperating teacher’s remarkand her actions. She felt the poem was giving her permission for her mixedfeelings. She was angry at her cooperating teacher and didn’t even knowhow to talk with her about her shock and anger. She felt that the poem gaveher support to continue to probe for ways to help this child work throughhis anger. She expressed that the poem was just what she needed today.After reflecting on the poem further, she said she felt the poem gave herpermission to feel angry, but now she would focus her actions on listening:listening to the student, listening to her cooperating teacher’s approach toclassroom management, and listening to her own developing voice and styleas a teacher. She summed this up, saying “Maybe what I need to do is just‘listen deeply.’”

The reflection tone changed when another student teacher said how“heavy” class was today, but then she explained she was exhausted fromtrying to get her fifth grade students to “just shut up.” She explained thatwhen she was leading the class the students start talking and the talkingleads to the lesson going out of control. She paused and thoughtfully addedthat she didn’t even think her students were listening to one another, as theyseem to be talking all at once. She said that the poem helped her think aboutlistening in a new way — as a part of her management of the class. She waswondering if the students ever really had a chance to talk to each other, tobe listened to, or if they even knew how to listen. The poem helped herthink of new ways in which she might lead a lesson or series of lessons

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Enhancing Reflective Practice Through Poetry 317

on listening and listening skills or even might provide a listening time as aregular classroom routine. She commented, “I’m thinking now about themlistening, not just talking — it puts things in a whole different perspective.”

Then, I glanced over at another student, Ana (pseudonym), and I sawthe first frown I had ever seen from her radiant face. It was as if she hadsomething to say but couldn’t find the words to begin, and then upon a closerlook, it seemed as if she was holding back from joining the conversation.Her arms were crossed, and then she picked up a bag of pens from her bagand began writing. I noted that in previous seminars she had always jumpedright into our discussions.

Throughout the rest of the seminar discussion time, Ana did not sayanything, so as our discussion time came to a close, I asked, as I always do,if anyone had anything else to add from our poem, our discussion, or theirown questions or reflections. I let silence be the focus of our group for atime. Ana still said nothing, except that she wished to talk to me after class.

The class momentum shifted from our formation and reflection time toinformation I needed to review with the students, and then as the class con-cluded, I reminded students that I would be available after class. Ana stayedafter class, and as it turned out, the poem had resonated, painfully, withAna’s deep concerns about her cooperating teacher — concerns centeredin part on her mentor teacher’s failure to listen to and consider Ana’s ownstyle and her needs as a student teacher. Ana’s cooperating teacher had beencontinually interrupting Ana’s lessons, adding in whatever and whenever shewanted. It appeared that her cooperating teacher felt a need for Ana to do allher lessons just the way the cooperating teacher would; Ana was losing herself-confidence. Ana might have come forward with her concerns at somepoint anyway, but she came forward that evening as a result of our poetry-centered reflection and formation process. She was relieved to be able toshare her concerns with someone, although she had not thought it appro-priate to share with the entire class because she was so upset and she feltthat, if she had tried to talk, she would have started crying instead. After fur-ther discussion about the style differences between Ana and her cooperatingteacher, we were able to begin to brainstorm some possible approaches toaddress her concerns, and Ana said she felt more prepared to return to herplacement the next day.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Given the ongoing positive feedback from the students for this processtogether with the depth and honesty of the students’ reflections, I have keptpoetry at the center in our seminar course. Students have told me that thistime to read, to think about, and to discuss a poem is what they look forwardto most in their week of university courses. Some have said it is like a “mini

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vacation” where they can process how they are feeling about the work ofteaching and take time for their own thoughts about the who that teaches.Hearing, reading, and experiencing the depth of students’ reflections usingthis process have convinced me of its value. Using poetry to help our stu-dents focus on their inner lives honors the diversity of their life experiencesand can create a process that may help instill renewal and sustainability intheir careers.

The examples of the reflections that my students made through the useof the poem “When Someone Deeply Listens to You” (Fox, n.d.) demon-strate how poetry can be used to stimulate reflection about student teachers’experiences in the classroom and in their own self-development as a teacher.Compared to the reflection process I used the first year I taught the seminar,the reflections the students describe in this process using poetry reveal awillingness to go deeper to participate in, and more fully understand, theself work that teaching calls one to do. The examples above are from justone of many seminars in which I have used this process. The reflectionshave been consistently engaging, thoughtful, and focused on integrating the“who” that teaches into the student teachers’ practices.

Clearly from the myriad literature on reflection there is no one rightprocess for reflection, nor any one right reflective process utilizing poetry.I present the poetry reflection process described in this article becauseit has worked for my seminar students. The student teachers using thisprocess have consistently engaged in reflection that goes beyond revis-ing and improving lesson plans or classroom management techniques. Thismethod has helped student teachers address the emotional, affective, andpersonality-related aspects of student teaching.

As I indicated in the introduction, one of my hopes for this article isthat other teacher educators may find this or a similar approach useful intheir own reflection work with student teachers. I also want to stimulate adialog with other preservice teacher educators about the use of poetry inreflective practice and to learn what others may have found through theirexperiences.

I have another hope, however, for my students’ futures, as they becomebeginning teachers and face the many challenges that this new role willentail. That hope is that by exposing my students to this process as studentteachers, they will later have this process available as a resource to helpsustain and renew them in the profession and to stay in touch with theso-important “who” they are as teachers.

REFERENCES

Akbari, R. (2007). Reflections on reflection: A critical appraisal of reflective practicesin L2 teacher education. System, 35, 192–207. doi:10.1016/j.system.2006.12.008

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Akhtar, S. (2000). Mental pain and the cultural ointment of poetry. InternationalJournal of Psycho-Analysis, 81, 229–243.

Bercik, J. T. (1999, February). Obtaining new teacher perceptions using reflectivepoetry. Paper presented at the meeting of the Eastern Educational ResearchAssociation, Hilton Head, SC.

Center for Courage and Renewal Web site. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.couragerenewal.org/about

Clark, A.-M. (2009). When privilege meets poverty: Using poetry in the process ofreflection. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 20(2), 125–142.

Danielewicz, J. (2001). Teaching selves: Identity, pedagogy, and teacher education.Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think. Boston, MA: D. C. HeathFox, J. (n.d.). When someone deeply listens to you. Retrieved from http://

poeticmedicine.org/poetry.htmlFox, J. (1997). Poetic medicine: The healing art of poem-making. New York, NY:

Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam.Gay, G. (2000). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research and practice. New

York, NY: Teachers College Press.Gay, G., & Kirkland, K. (2003). Developing cultural critical consciousness and self-

reflection in preservice teacher education. Theory Into Practice, 42(3), 181–187.doi:10.1207/s15430421tip4203_3

Ingram, M. A. (2000). Shelling beans: The use of sociocultural poetry to assist pre-service teachers and counselors develop empathic understanding of culturaldifferences (Opinion Paper N. CG030772). (ERIC Document ReproductionService No. ED450326). Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=ED450326

Ladson-Billings, G. (2001). Crossing over to Canaan: The journey of new teachers indiverse classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Palmer, P. J. (1998). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’slife. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Palmer, P. J. (2004). A hidden wholeness: The journey toward an undivided life. SanFrancisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Palmer, P. J. (2007). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’slife (10th anniversary ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Raingruber, B. (2004). Using poetry to discover and share significant meanings inchild and adolescent mental health nursing. Journal of Child and AdolescentPsychiatric Nursing, 17 , 13–20. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-6171.2004.00013.x

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action.New York, NY: Basic Books.

Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design forteaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Valli, L. (Ed.). (1992). Reflective teacher education: Cases and critiques. Albany, NY:SUNY Press.

Zeichner, K. M., & Liston, D. P. (1996). Reflective teaching: An introduction. Mahwah,NJ: Erlbaum.

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APPENDIX 1: SOME ADDITIONAL POETRY RESOURCES

Angelou, M. (1986). Poems. New York, NY: Random House.Barks, C., with Nicholson, R., Arberry, A. J., & Moyne, J. (2004). The

essential Rumi (New expanded edition). San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins.

Durica, K. M. (2007). How we “do” school: Poems to encourage teacherreflection. Newark, NJ: International Reading Association.

Intrator, S. M., & Scribner, M. (Eds.). (2003). Teaching with fire: Poetry thatsustains the courage to teach. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Intrator, S. M., & Scribner, M. (Eds.). (2007). Leading from within: Poetry thatsustains the courage to lead. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Keillor, G. (2002). Good poems. New York, NY: Penguin Books.Oliver, M. (1992). New and selected poems. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Poetic Medicine Resources Web site: http://poeticmedicine.org/links.html#

poetry_therapyPoetry from Panhala Web site: To subscribe send a blank e-mail to: Panhala-

subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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