The butterfly whisperer: representing a gifted student’s connection with nature through poetic inquiry

ABSTRACT

Scholars suggest that children enjoy a greater connection with the natural world and encourage the nurturing of this relationship so they grow to value rather than fear nature. During this inquiry, I turned to poetic transcription to represent a gifted, fourth-grade student’s connection with natural surroundings. After collecting data through interviews, journal entries from the participant, and observational notes, I practiced Found Poetry by selecting key phrases and words that best captured the student’s experiences and crafted three, researcher-voiced poems (“Nature’s Child”, “Nature’s Mind”, and “The Butterfly Whisperer”). Examining the poems, I determined that this student’s connection with the natural environment closely mirrored research suggesting that children in fact experience nature differently. I also discuss how using poetic inquiry assisted me in vicariously and evocatively representing the student’s experiences, hopefully causing readers to reconsider their own relationship with nature.

KEYWORDS:

• Affective development
• found poetry
• gifted education
• naturalistic intelligence
• poetic inquiry
• poetic transcription

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.