Using poetry to promote literacy skills in initial teacher education

Initial teacher education, across all discipline areas, has become an important public issue in Australia and internationally. The quality of pre-service teacher education is paramount to the standards of teachers entering the profession and ultimately to the outcomes for students in schools. One of the core skills needed by pre-service teachers is literacy. The question, however, is how best to develop the literacy skills of pre-service teachers in an engaging way and bring an awareness of the importance and power of language in across the disciplines. One way is to use poetry overtly as part of teaching and learning within teacher education programs. This presentation examines the work of one teacher-educator in using his own poetry as part of literacy education and as a way of bringing creative practices into initial teacher education. The presentation explores examples from practice and theorises how poetry can effectively add to the repertoire of teacher educators in promoting quality outcomes for student teachers.