Poetic Pedagogy: A Reflection on Narrative in Social Work Practice and Education

Abstract

Poetry has been used in professional practice and education to highlight clients' experiences, explore ethics and professionalism, and illuminate practice tensions. In this Ideas in Action paper I weave together a story from my own practice, a poetic account of an ethical dilemma written by a practitioner/scholar and reflections on the place of poetry in social work education. I invite practitioners and educators to consider the unique role of poetry in social work training to honour the relational aspects of practice and explore the complexity and ambiguity of day-to-day practice.

Keywords:

• Reflective Practice
• Personal Narrative
• Poetry
• Ethics
• Relational Practice

Notes

^1. Anne Kinsella is an occupational therapist and professor of health professional education at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario, Canada. The poem Professionalism has been reprinted here with permission from the Journal of the Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies (2006) and was subsequently published under the title ‘Louise's Gift’ in the anthology From the Other Side of the Fence: Stories from Health Care Professionals, edited by Jeff Nisker.

^2. The client's name has been changed and details withheld to respect her privacy. For a fuller account of my relationship with Angela see the piece entitled ‘How and why we speak: reflecting on loss and connection’ published in Reflections: Narratives of Professional Helping (Gold and Anderson, 2007).