Collaborative autoethnography investigating neighborhood segregation and higher education experience: Poetry caught between the coordinates

Abstract

Collaborative poetry-informed autoethnography method was utilized to better understand the experience of redlining and the impact of these policies on the experience of education at a predominantly white university. Five graduate student members of a community writing project both in social work and medicine were given five writing prompts to encourage creative writing about experiences of childhood neighborhood segregation in the States. These students (co-authors/investigators) wrote short, raw poetry pieces for each prompt. The first author completed careful reading of all pieces and explored accessible cultural history resources for each childhood neighborhood. Each poem was paired with cultural history analysis to place student lived experience into cultural context. A combination of collaborative narrative opportunities and educator careful listening of student experience helps to make visible the impact of systematic discrimination on higher education success.