Becoming the Teacher Poet: Writing Identity, Poetic Practice and the Re-Making of English Pedagogy

This conceptual and practice-oriented article examines the teacher poet as a productive identity position within English education. Drawing on Roz Ivanič’s theory of writing and identity, I argue that teachers’ participation in poetic writing can reshape pedagogical knowledge, classroom relationships and understandings of authorship. I develop the argument through four recursive movements: from writing history to writer identity; from explaining craft to experiencing craft; from evaluator to fellow writer; and from human authorship to AI-mediated authorship. Teacher-poet identity, I suggest, depends neither on publication nor on professional status, but develops through repeated acts of writing, revision, sharing and reflection. The article concludes with eight principles for writer-centred poetry pedagogies that foreground encounter, modelling, invitational sharing, authentic audiences, craft knowledge, relationship and critical human decision-making when generative AI is used, offered as provisional commitments for teachers to adapt.