From Text to Voice: Analyzing the Voice of African American Studies Curricula Through Poetic Inquiry

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Poetic Inquiry to Excavate Curricula, Conflict, and the Poetic Event

Abstract

Curriculum selection committees focus on standards alignment and rigor, often failing to analyze how materials are written. Previous research has shown that textbooks, especially in history, can be written with the voice of either recorder or appraiser. As part of a Community Based Research project, this study uses poetic inquiry to analyze the voice of curricula being considered for a new course by a district curriculum selection committee. While analyzing standards alignment and rigor, the researcher broke textbook excerpts into poetic structures which are used to compare the voice of the curriculum to each other, and to the state standards. The resulting study demonstrates the benefit of such analysis for the course in question, and across the broader education spectrum.

Author

• Zachary Richard Urquhart, Texas Tech University