Playing with shadows – playing with words: exploring teachers' ownership through poetic inquiry in a Norwegian–Nepalese preschool teacher education project

Abstract

This article explores the use of poetic inquiry in a transnational competence-building Shadow Play Project. Based on journals from four Nepalese preschool teacher educators, I present and interpret examples of data poems that portray the teachers' experiences of ownership in the project. My discussion intends to make explicit some aspects of the process of my search for the experience of ownership, coupled with a discussion of the search of a poetic form. I will further reflect upon the usefulness and challenges of poetic inquiry, given the use of English as a second or third language of the persons involved. Through this, I seek to develop a critical understanding of poetic inquiry as a way of understanding the experiences of others.

本文探討了如何運用詩學調查進行一項跨國能力培養的影戲項目。在來自四所尼泊爾學前師資教育機構的研究日誌基礎上，我展示並闡述了相關詩歌資料，顯示了教師在該專案中的所有權地位。我的分析試圖詳述我對此所有權經驗探尋的某些方面，同時也對詩學形式進行了探討。在將來，根據參與者對於英語作為第二、第三語言的運用，我的研究會著眼於詩學調查的有用性與挑戰性。通過該研究，我試圖建立起一套對於通過詩學調查理解經驗的批判性看法。

Este artículo explora el uso de la indagación poética en un proyecto teatral de sombras transnacional para fomentar la competencia. Basándome en los diarios de nuestros cuatro formadores Nepalíes de profesores de preescolar, presento e interpreto ejemplos de poemas de datos que retratan las experiencias de la propiedad de los profesores en el proyecto. Mi análisis trata de hacer explícitos algunos aspectos del proceso de mi búsqueda de la experiencia de propiedad, junto con un análisis de la búsqueda de una forma poética. Reflexionaré más a fondo sobre la utilidad y los desafíos de la indagación poética, dado el uso del inglés como 2^a o 3^a lengua de las personas involucradas. A través de esto, busco desarrollar una comprensión crítica de la indagación poética como un modo de comprender las experiencias de otros.

Keywords:

• ownership
• competance-building
• poetic inquiry
• data poem
• Nepal
• preschool teacher training
• shadow play
• educational partnership
• mentoring

Notes on contributor

Ruth Mjanger is an assistant professor in drama education with a background in intercultural studies. She is currently in the process of completing an Associate Professor Education Program. She is dedicated to the exploration of interdisciplinary educational collaborations between arts disciplines, and between arts disciplines and other disciplines. She has extensive experience in creative communication with children and young people and has been an actor, a director and a playwright in various productions for stage and radio.

Notes

1. ECEC is a private business company founded in 2001 and led by the Dutch preschool teacher and director Reiny de Wit. The trainings are based on a holistic development of the child and play as a core key to child learning, and therefore ECEC are pioneers in Nepal. ECEC offers a variety of courses and trains teachers, principals, governmental facilitators and parents (ECEC web site, Videos 1 and 2). About 40 staff members are a mix of Nepalese, some few permanent Dutch workers and shifting international volunteers.

2. According to Wikipedia, European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) is a standard for comparing the study attainment and performance of students of higher education across the European Union and other collaborating European countries. One academic year corresponds to 60 ECTS-credits that are equivalent to 1500–1800 hours of study. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Credit_Transfer_and_Accumulation_System

3. A curiosity to use research poems as a way of presenting research results is not a very new contribution to research methodology, even though the latest 20–30 years has witnessed the development of this research field (Glesne 1997; Prendergast, Leggo, and Sameshima 2009; Barone and Eisner 2012, among others). Poems have even been valued in the natural sciences. An example is in Die Urwelt der Schweiz, the first comprehensive presentation of palaeontology (fossil and pre-historic life) in Europe, by Dr Oswald Heer (1865). This book presents a 20-verse long poem that describes a fossil location (459–464).

4. Inspired by Prendergast (2012).

5. Language proficiency and the translation process are discussed little in the literature I have encountered. Glesne (1997) briefly explores the use of English in the interview instead of Spanish, the participants’ first language. West et al. (2009) investigate how deaf language can be translated into English written language. This missing discussion was a matter of both interest and hindrance for me, since I experience language as being a key to poetic inquiry.