“Follow Through”: Poetic Representation of Action Planning for Social Justice

Abstract

During an historic semester of student led protests for social justice, the University College of Education (pseudonym) facilitated an action planning session for diversity, inclusion, and social justice. This paper is guided by the question, how can data gathered from an action planning meeting on diversity, inclusion, and social justice be a/r/tographically (Irwin & De Cosson, 2004) represented to support self-awareness and transformative learning experiences? The four co-authors engaged in poetic representation (Ward, 2011) and describe how the data analysis and poem construction yielded opportunities for critical reflection in pursuit of educational equity. This work calls for continued dialogue, action, and emotional commitment to address issues of marginalization in education. The potential of arts-based research to help mediate transformative and lifelong learning regarding diversity and inclusion are discussed.

Keywords

• social justice, found poetry, arts-based research, higher education, campus climate