(Re)Acquaintance with Praxis: A poetic inquiry into shame, sobriety and the case for a curriculum of authenticity

Through the use of poetic inquiry, this article explores the possibilities that exist within education when we acknowledge ourselves as imperfect. Drawing upon personal experience, the author seeks to create a dialogic space for reconsidering oneself and one’s ways of being within practice. Engaging poetically with theory and experience, the author uses the method of currere to explore her journey through alcoholism and sobriety, as well as experiences in the classroom, as a means of attending to the loss of connection that often occurs when educators perform according to external definitions. Through her experience, the author discovered that it is authenticity that creates the opportunity for dialogue and connection, allowing us to move beyond definition toward a curricular landscape that embraces our humanity