Teaching a Selection of Heaney's Troubles Poetry to Upper Post-primary Pupils in Northern Ireland's Divided Schools: Educational Contexts and Pedagogical Opportunities. Issue 3 (3rd July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hanratty, Brian
• Is Part Of: Changing English. Volume 24:Issue 3(2017)
• Page Start: 285
• Page End: 298
• Publication Date: 2017-07-03
• Subjects: Heaney -- Troubles -- poems -- contexts -- allegiances -- reconciliation; English literature -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; English language -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; 410
• DOI: 10.1080/1358684X.2016.1276396
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1358-684X

Abstract

Abstract: Centred on a carefully chosen selection of Heaney's Troubles poems, this paper explores pedagogical opportunities that the poems present in the context of upper post-primary classrooms in Northern Ireland's divided schools. Five poems are evaluated in total. These are: 'The Other Side', 'A Constable calls', 'The Toome Road', 'The Strand at Lough Beg' and 'An Ulster Twilight'. While these five poems represent only a small selection of Heaney's Troubles poems, they nonetheless cover an interesting spectrum in terms of their politico-cultural perspectives. The analysis of the poems focuses on exploring how teachers could use the poems to enable pupils to examine their traditional identities and allegiances and perhaps re-evaluate them in the light of new insights provided by the poems. While suggestions for this pedagogical exploration is at the heart of the paper, the early section establishes some relevant theoretical and educational contexts and the concluding section situates the paper in the context of previous, related curricular initiatives with Northern Ireland. It is to be hoped, finally, that the curricular initiative proposed by the paper could contribute, if even in a small way, to the ongoing search for peace and reconciliation between Northern Ireland's two main, and still divided, communities.