Generativity in Amanda Gorman's Inaugural Poem
Amanda Gorman, the first youth Poet Laureate to speak at a US Presidential Inauguration, is a prime example in identifying generativity in youth. Her poems are full of generative themes, discussing issues of legacy, redemption, agency, communion, and much more.
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In developing a strong collaboration with the Student's Commission of Canada, we worked with their facilitator roster to code Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem, The Hill We Climb, for themes of generativity.
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The facilitators coded the poem for six generative themes: legacy, belief in the species, redemption, ​agency, awareness of the suffering of others, and communion. The facilitators easily found examples of all six codes throughout her poem, indicated by colour in the photo.
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Involving the Student's Commission facilitators in this process is mutually beneficial; teaching coding skills to the facilitators and allowing the research lab to identify if external youth had similar understandings and definitions of these terms as we do.
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Interested in examining Gorman's poem in more depth? Check out her full poem here and read "Poet Amanda Gorman’s take on love as legacy points to youth’s power to shape future generations" on the Conversation Canada.
