This paper articulates the findings of a two-year Canadian federally-funded postdoctoral study — Poetic inquiry in qualitative research: A critical survey — on the use of poetry in social science qualitative research practices. Based on a 1000+ page annotated bibliography gathered into a critical anthology as the data for this project, the discoveries emerged that are expressed below. The bibliography consists solely of poems included in over 230 studies found for this multidisciplinary project, supported by abstracts and brief contextual notes. Selection criteria for included studies were peer-reviewed journal contributions only, bracketing out anything that had appeared in book form, in ‘Poet's Corners’, and also excluding poems appearing in theses or dissertations. Some of these excluded poems are cited in a separate Appendix. These criteria were made simply to limit the scope of the study to a manageable scale. Most of this poetically-informed scholarship has appeared in the past decade, although some entries date as far back as the 1970's and 80's. Conclusions are that poetic inquiry most often addresses topics with clear affective dimensions, and can be distinguished between participant-based and self-study foci, with occasional examples of theoretical studies. Participant-based studies generally draw on the literary tradition of found poetry to represent participant data. Self-studies may address more philosophical, phenomenological and/or poststucturalist opportunities that present themselves through the use of poetry in social science contexts.

No abstract

Creating found poetry from theoretical literature offers an arts-based approach to literature review in inquiry. Found poetry has a long history of practice in poetry as the imaginative appropriation and reconstruction of already-existing texts. This article presents literature-voiced research found poems that express distillations and crystallizations of a wide range of writing in contemporary continental philosophy and performance theory. The suite of poems forms part of a current dissertation inquiry in the form of a curriculum theory of audience in performance and education.T he found poems on audience and performance presented here have been created as part of the literature review component of my current doctoral dissertation project in interdisciplinary studies (theater and curriculum) at the University of Victoria, British Columbia (see also Prendergast, 2001Prendergast, , 2004bPrendergast, , 2004d. The poems represent emerging understandings of audience in performance coming from readings in contemporary continental aesthetic philosophy and theater/performance theory. The suite serves to reflect on, play against, and perform with the central topic of this inquiry, that of developing a curriculum theory for audience education in the performing arts. My intention is to place these poems, and others, as chapters and as interludes within and between chapters throughout my dissertation (see also Prendergast, 2004c. Research poetry used in this context offers an alternative method for understanding and representing key theories and texts in inquiry. This aesthetic and intellectual choice is drawn from my belief that the transitory, ephemeral, and affective nature of performance requires a similar form of writing. This kind of language is clearly to be found in poetry, with its unique ability to capture and present aspects of the past (in memory),

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

A found poem created from a selection of poems published in indexed peer-reviewed social science journals between 2007 and 2012 is presented. The excerpts from poems were drawn from a 595-page annotated bibliographic update of a bibliography on this poetic inquiry in the social sciences that was completed in 2007. Excerpts from poems were gathered from this updated compilation via Kurt H. Wolff’s phenomenological surrender and catch method. Surrendering to the process of engaging with the bibliography allowed me to catch phrases, lines, and verses. Excerpts were chosen based on aesthetic criteria such as imagery, metaphor, truthfulness, affective impact, and so on. These excerpts were then grouped according to various voice forms and topics covered. A found poem created from excerpts from 30 poems focuses on Vox Poetica, one of five new voices discovered that are employed in recent poetic inquiry practice.

Haiku are presented here as a poetic form of research inquiry that locates researcher stance, bias, and the autobiographical underpinnings of the research process. These research poems also function as examples of ekphrasis, that is, the practice of writing about art objects. In this case, the object of the haiku is the topic of my dissertation study-the development of a curriculum theory (and poetics) for audience in performance. RÉSUMÉ Les haiku sont présentés ici comme une forme d'enquête à base poetique qui situe le point vu, les présuppositions ainsi que l'autobiographie sous-jacente le processus de recherche. Ces poèmes sont aussi des exemples 'd'ekphrasis',-la pratique d'écrire au sujet d'objets d'art. Ici l'objet de haiku, étant le sujet de ma dissertation, sert au développement d'une théorie du curriculum (ainsi que de la poésie) pour l'auditoire lors de représentations.