For Those Who Teach Creative Writing--Study II of VI

Dan Lukiv
M.Ed., English and Creative Writing
McNaughton Centre, Quesnel, BC, Canada
E-mail: lukivdan@shaw.ca

In my 2002 MEd research (2002a or 2003a), I explored what events in elementary and high school had encouraged one person to become a poet. I called him Arthur, to protect his anonymity, and this established Canadian poet provided, through hermeneutic phenomenological interviews, eight essential themes. A rigorous process of participant review, bracketing in bias, and peer debriefing helped keep interviews and analysis and interpretation of interviews as bias free as possible. So did field notes, a field journal, contact summaries, memos, and a process phenomenological researcher Max van Manen calls free imaginative variation. So did what he calls hermeneutic objectivity and subjectivity.

As an independent researcher, I repeated the study in mid 2003, but with another participant. To protect his anonymity, I called him Thomas. He, too, is an established Canadian poet, and he, too, provided themes. Although seven themes emerged, only one, at the end of the hermeneutic phenomenological process, stood as essential.

Some teachers may want to extrapolate these studies' conclusions by addressing the essential themes in their classrooms. They may hope that what encouraged these writers or either writer may encourage another student.

Here are Arthur's eight themes turned into nine questions:

  1. Do I provide opportunities for students to read poetry and fiction silently?
  2. Do I provide quality oral reading of poetry and fiction in class?
  3. Do I provide class singsongs?
  4. Do I provide language experiences--movies, plays, novels, short story and poetry collections, scripts, and electronic media--uninterrupted by questions or other assignments?
  5. Do I provide reasonable opportunities for students to daydream, to enjoy flights of imagination fuelled by the connotative and imagistic value of words?
  6. Do I provide reasonable opportunities for students to pun and joke and verbally inform others about what they have learned?
  7. Do I passionately discuss with students thoughts and feelings based on poetry and fiction texts read in class, and do I openly value their attempts to write down those thoughts and feelings?
  8. Do I provide opportunities for students to explore literature through freedom of choice?
  9. Do I compassionately provide sound direction about how to write well?

(Reprinted from Teachers.Net Gazette [2003a, April])

Here is Thomas' single theme turned into three questions:

  1. Do I demand, from a humanistic point of view, the best from students?
  2. Do I value, love, see each student as sublimely unique?
  3. Do I encourage students to be the best that they can be, no matter what their gifts or deficits are?

Notice the focus on demand in "1" and encourage in "3."

You may wonder how these questions relate to a teacher trying to encourage students to become creative writers. Perhaps Thomas' theme, stated, will help: One teacher (English 9, 10, and 11) who demanded the best of Thomas as a human being, and who more than valued, but loved, saw Thomas as a unique person, encouraged him to be the best that he could be, and since he had always, going back as far he can remember, wanted to write, that encouragement translated into his wanting to be the best writer that he could be. The fact that she was a high school English teacher is not relevant. If she had been a math teacher, he feels the effect would have been the same. Her interest in him, her demanding nature, and her more than just valuing Thomas as a person made such a deep impression on him that to this day his memories of her classes remain a source of joy and motivation. From this theme, then, came three statements that I confirmed with Thomas through participant review: 1) Demand, from a humanistic point of view, the best from students; 2) Value, love, see each student as sublimely unique; and 3) Encourage students to be the best that they can be, no matter what their gifts or deficits are.

Through further participant review, Thomas agreed with the following:

  1. Application of "1," "2," and "3" may encourage a student with creative writing ability or interest to become a poet, novelist, or dramatist;
  2. Application of "1," "2," and "3" may encourage a student with any ability or interest to develop that ability or pursue that interest; and
  3. Application of "1," "2," and "3" may encourage students to develop positive, lifelong-learning habits.

(Academic Exchange Extra published the entire study in its March 2004 issue)

Thomas' theme, you might say, has broader direction for teachers than Arthur's eight. I plan to repeat this study four more times with four new participants, to add direction for teachers. I'm excited about what new direction will emerge! I plan, after completing Study VI, to use grounded theory direction to gather all the themes in the six studies into a covering theory that will direct teachers who want to encourage some students to become creative writers. After I complete that grounded theory study, I plan to survey established writers to see if the theory rings true with regard to their experiences in school.

For now, teachers can address Thomas and Arthur's themes by personally answering the questions in this article. Both studies don't offer generalizations for teachers to use, but they do offer teachers an opportunity to extrapolate the findings in their classrooms. In short, if certain events or conditions encouraged Arthur and Thomas, perhaps the same or some of the same events or conditions may encourage others. These others may become the new poets, fiction writers, and dramatists of tomorrow.

References

Lukiv, D. (2002a).
Lived school experiences that encouraged one person to become a creative writer [MEd research project; UNBC; library location: LB1575.8.L85]. Prince George, BC: Department of Education.
 
Lukiv, D. (2003a, April).
"Direction for Teachers of Creative Writing." Teachers.Net Gazette. Web site address: http://teachers.net/gazette/APR03/lukiv.htm

Academic Exchange Extra invites reader responses to any writings in this issue--especially articles advancing the scholarly debate of issues raised.

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