EPALE - den Elektroniske Platform for Voksenlæring i Europa

To not get tired of reaching out for miracles 

... is a heavily shortened, roughly translated way of summarizing the instruction of Hilde Domin's poem Nicht müde werden (Just don't grow weary – read it here). In Project POETA, which started this year and will run until August of 2023 we are not getting tired, in fact, we're only getting started. POETA has set sails to develop and explore an all-new pedagogical approach for learners in basic education, based on and incorporating poetry. 

Poetry is an universal form of communication. For adults learning to read and write, poetry can contribute to the strengthening of communication skills and establish a space for individual growth. Our project wants to create a framework for the self-development and self-empowerment of people on their way to writing, including native speakers as well as second language learners. The poetry pedagogical approach is intended to be an alternative or at least complementary to traditional concepts of literacy and basic education, which tend to be deficit-oriented and primarily focused on integrating people into the labor market or improving their work-related performance rather than their self-centered life quality.

Instead of focusing on the written word as a means to an end, like filling in forms or communicating in professional contexts, working with poetry allows to engage with language in an empowering way. Once the idea of poetry as some sort of high culture, exclusive art is overcome, which is crucial for our work, the language of poetry allows experimenting with words, spelling, grammar and opens an emotional space between the written words that allows a more rich reading and writing experience as the tools of deficit-oriented approaches. 

Over the course of the project we're developing the field of poetry pedagogy both by mapping it theoretically and exploring it practically. By the end of the project, two intellectual outputs will be published, an eBook on the approach and a MOOC allowing teachers to learn about the approach and self-qualify in the methods we developed and explored. 

Project POETA (please note that the homepage is still in development) is managed by the german KEB (catholic adult education) Rhineland-Palatinate and has partners in Austria (das kollektiv), Cyprus (Synthesis Center for Research and Education), Greece (Kalamata Second Chance School) and Spain (European Learning Centre).