Hear my voice as who I am: Theorizing the essence of poetry in holistic global citizenship education

Abstract

Poetry as an imaginative language art has long been perceived as the core of humanity, the foundation of human advancement (Arnold,1880; Rorty, 2007). By composing, critiquing, and sharing/performing poems, not only does the process enrich and deepen one’s relationship to oneself, understanding and reflecting on the contextual, historical, cultural, social, and creative backgrounds of the poems and poets allows one to have greater connections with the broader environment across temporal, spatial, and social dimensions with human and non-human beings. This paper first frames the core concepts and values of global citizenship from a Confucius perspective to emphasize the significance of self-cultivation. It then briefly discusses the concept of “self” in sociology and linguistic anthropology through “footing” (Goffman, 1979) and “empowerment” (Weidman, 2014) in terms of “voice” (Hill, 1995). Having established the individualistic and social facets of “self,” it then applies these concepts to theorizing an alternative way for poetry and facilitated dialogues to promote holistic education. By centering the notion of ‘interrelationships to self’ and introducing interdisciplinary perspectives to reimagine the role of poetry and facilitated dialogues, this paper aims to lay a theoretical ground for rethinking poetry pedagogy, teacher education, and holistic education towards a future for wholeness and unity by disrupting the thinking vs. feeling dichotomy (Wordsworth, 1800) and challenging the phenomenon of “disembodiment” in modern society (Bai, 2001; Bai, 2006).