Emerging approaches to educational research: tracing the sociomaterial

The last 15 years have seen much conceptual and methodological innovation in research on education and learning across the lifecourse. This innovation was initially fuelled by the growing influence of conceptual framings often named as either post-structural or postmodern. As part of and also in response to the influence of post-structuralism and postmodernism in the social sciences, there have emerged and developed a further range of conceptual and methodological framings which are more relational, system and practice-focussed. Several of these framings work with a non-linear understanding of causality and embrace unpredictability in the world and undecidability in people’s understanding of it. They also challenge any notion of a strong boundary between the social and natural sciences. This book explores the most significant four of these framings, how they are being taken up in research in education and learning across the lifecourse, as well as their possibilities and limitations: (1) complexity science; (2) cultural historical activity theory (CHAT); (3) actor-network theory (ANT); and (4) spatiality theories. The book is illustrated throughout with examples drawn from educational contexts across the life courses, including schooling, post-compulsory education and training, educational policy, workplace and community-based education in North America, the UK, and Australia. The contents are: Why sociomateriality in education?; Emergence and perturbation: understanding complexity science; Complexity theory in educational research; Contradiction and expansion: understanding cultural historical activity theory; Cultural historical activity theory in educational research; Translation and network effects: understanding actor-network theory; Actor-network theory in educational research; Spatiality and temporality: understanding cultural geography; Spatial theory in educational research; Sociomaterial approaches: contributions and issues for educational research. Show less