Conceptual ecologies for educational research through Deleuze,Guattari and Whitehead

This article will explore the increasing interest in the application of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and Alfred North Whitehead to educational research, for example, as a conceptual underpinning for inquiry in the new materialisms, and/or educational posthumanism. The exploration of this paper is complicated by the fact that Deleuze and Guattari changed their philosophical position in their dual publications, with, for example, their last book: What is Philosophy? representing a substantial departure from their rhizomatic work in, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. This article will explain the changes in position with reference to the mapping of conceptual ecologies that Deleuze and Guattari are describing through their philosophy, and not dualism. Concept creation appears in the analysis of Western philosophy in: What is Philosophy? and as the job of philosophy. In contrast, A Thousand Plateaus presents a whole raft of interrelated concepts that help explain the connections between capitalism and schizophrenia, but do not present ‘concept creation’ as a positive task as such, even though one could impute that they are successfully doing it. This article will explain these changes in positioning of Deleuze and Guattari as a mode of sophisticated conceptual ecology, which takes into account the work that they want their concepts to perform. Transcribed to educational research, ‘concept creation’ is an importantly non-methodological task, which is augmented and expanded with reference to the metaphysics of Whitehead’s process philosophy (a non-method), and how it has been taken up, for example, by Isabelle Stengers in terms of research positioning and science.     

Diffraction and response-able reading of texts: the relational ontologies of Barad and Deleuze

In this paper, we use a diffractive reading developed by feminist philosopher and quantum physicist Karen Barad, as part of a response-able methodology, in order to consider the claim made by Serge Hein in his paper ‘The New Materialism in Qualitative Inquiry: How Compatible Are the Philosophies of Barad and Deleuze?’ (2016) that the philosophies of Barad and Deleuze and Guattari are incommensurable. Our point of departure is from a stance which is quite different from that of Hein’s – we propose that it is indeed productive to put the work of Barad into conversation with that of Deleuze. As an alternative to critique used by Hein to engage with the work of Barad and Deleuze, we consider how a response-able and diffractive reading of notions of critique could provide a more affirmative and productive way of reading academic texts, including those by Barad and Deleuze.     

后结构主义视角下的《通天塔》——随德勒兹赏析蒙太奇的奥妙

法国哲学家德勒兹在其两部电影哲学专著《电影I:运动——影像》与《电影II:时间——影像》中对电影符号论提出了飞跃的观点,并以后结构主义生成的美学,为我们对电影的事件、时空关系的研究提升了平台。堪称概念创造大师的德勒兹,融入其"生成美学"的哲学思维,对蒙太奇手法的作用给出了别样的诠释。群像电影《通天塔》片名取自《圣经》,以多个故事的同时叙述,展示了人与人之间的隔阂与误解,导演伊纳里多对蒙太奇的巧妙运用,完美地将叙事嵌入时间的延绵。该文欲结合德勒兹的哲学观与电影美学,从后结构主义视角出发,探索《通天塔》为观众提供的饕餮盛宴背后的哲学思想基础。     

Mapping not tracing: qualitative educational research with political teeth

In this article, we deploy ideas from Deleuze and Guattari to argue for the importance of engaging in educational research practice designed to be productive (mapping) rather than representational (tracing). First, we introduce the significance of our approach for educational research practice. Second, we unpack key constructs from Deleuze and Guattari required for constructing our argument, and we outline the shape of mapping as productive or transformative research practice. Third, we share critical summaries of several studies that utilized mapping to engage in this kind of research practice. Finally, we discuss the nature, effects, and relevance of mapping as educational research practice.     

德勒兹与鲍德里亚：两种影像思维

学界一提起＂仿像＂便自然想到鲍德里亚,然而,＂仿像＂理论在德勒兹的思想中也占据重要地位。鲍德里亚主要立足于社会学领域,传承了麦克卢汉、列斐伏尔、德波等人对消费社会现象的认识,更加侧重技术层面,而德勒兹主要以哲学立场为视点,颠覆柏拉图主义、拒斥再现理论,更为侧重学理层面。可以说,德勒兹的仿像更为彻底。虽然二人遵循的是两种不同的影像思维逻辑,但二人都基于后现代主义立场,在＂一＂与＂多＂传统命题的框架内重新认识＂仿像＂,考察真实与虚拟之间的关系。     

Engagement with research: acknowledging uncertainty in methodology

Method creates relationships in research. It positions everyone and everything in the research process. When method is based on a misrepresentation of science, the relationships formed are technical, closed and self-referential. Using a Deleuze–Guattari framework we are concerned that scientific method in qualitative research solidifies, crystallizes and archaeologizes the research. This paper questions what is being ruled out and deemed as unimportant, or indeed contaminating and fallacious in such research. We argue for the acknowledgement of uncertainty as this allows for more engagement with the research and researched. Deleuze and Guattari argue for multiplicity, connectivity and becoming. This paper calls for acknowledging and mentoring uncertainty at every stage of the teaching and learning of method.     

In the maw of the Ouroboros: an analysis of scientific literacy and democracy

This paper explores the concept of scientific literacy through its relation to democracy and citizenship. Scientific literacy has received international attention in the twenty-first century as demonstrated by the Programme for International Student Assessment survey of 2006. It is no longer just a concept but has become a stated and testable outcome in the science education research community. This paper problematizes the ‘marriage’ between scientific literacy and democracy, particularly the idea that scientific literacy is a presupposed necessity to proper citizenship and awareness of the role of science in modern society. A perusal of the science education literature can provide a history of scientific literacy, as it exists as a research category. Through Gilles Deleuze’s notion of the Dogmatic Image of Thought and its relation to a Spinozist understanding of individuation/Becoming, it is argued that scientific literacy is not a recent invention and is problematic in its relation to democracy. This article is thus intended to act more as vehicle to move, stimulate and dramatize thought and potentially reconceptualise scientific literacy, than a comprehensive historical analysis. The concept of scientific literacy has undergone specific transformations in the last two centuries and has been enacted in different manifestations throughout modernity. Here the analysis draws upon Deleuze’s reading of Michel Foucault and the notion of the Diagram related to Foucault’s oeuvre, and is specifically using Foucault’s notion of rationalities as actualized threads or clusters of discourse. The obvious link between science and democracy is an effect of specific rationalities within the epistemological field of science, rather than intrinsic, essential characteristics of science or scientific literacy. There is nothing intrinsic in its function for democracy. Through a case study of the work of Charles W. Eliot and Herbert Spencer and the modern enactment of scientific literacy in contemporary science education, this paper shows the cultural and historical contingencies on which the relation between scientific literacy and democracy has been constructed through a rationality this article calls the Man of Science. The mythical Ouroboros will be used as a Fresh Image of Thought to explore the movements and folds within the discursive formation of Scientific Literacy, the rationality of the Man of Science, and their relation to democracy.     

Deleuze,action research and rhizomatic growth

Deleuze and his colleagues, particularly Guattari, have had a profound impact on a number of fields of study. The authors argue that their work offers a range of images to help think about and write action research, a way that acknowledges and celebrates the complexities of the sites of action. The article has a divided structure, coherent with the style of Deleuze & Guattari. The authors present some Deleuzian ideas, particularly the concept of rhizomatic growth, and show how they might profitably be used to analyse and write accounts of action research, reflecting the multiplicities of practice, in this case within education. They have shown the potentialities of the ‘rhizome’ as a way to rethink the field of action research, imagining a new epistemology (in which the concepts work, rather than represent) and how the rhizome demands experimental forms of writing ourselves in action research. They show a cartography (of smooth and striated space) that is required to think rhizomatically about action research.     

Entering a crack: an encounter with gossip

In this paper, I enter a crack to think otherwise about the concept “gossip”. Drawing on previous scholarship engaging with Deleuzian concepts to inform research methodologies, this paper builds on this body of work. Following Deleuze and Guattari, the paper undertakes a mapping of gossip, subsequent to an encounter with a crack. Thinking about gossip as something other than woman’s small talk, the paper follows a line opening up gossip onto an intensive web of affects and Deleuze’s becoming-woman. It concludes arguing that the process of entering a crack unlocked thought, making possible new ways of engaging with data.     

Making sense in education: Deleuze on thinking against common sense

According to a widespread view, one of the most important roles of education is the nurturing of common sense. In this article I turn to Gilles Deleuze’s concept of sense to develop a contrary view of education—one that views education as a radical challenge to common sense. The discussion will centre on the relation of sense and common sense to thinking. Although adherents of common sense refer to it as the basis of all thought and appeal to critical thinking as instrumental in eliminating its occasional errors, I shall argue, following Deleuze, that common sense education in fact thwarts thinking, while only education which revolves around making sense may provoke thinking that goes beyond the self-evident. I demonstrate how making sense can become an educational encounter that breaks hierarchies and generates thinking independently of the thinker’s knowledge and place in the sociopolitical order. The present article attempts, therefore, to put some sense into Deleuzian education for thinking, and thereby shed new light on its radical-political, counter-commonsensical power.     

‘We don't believe media anymore’: Mapping critical literacies in an adult immigrant language classroom

This article maps critical literacies conceptually and empirically in the context of adult immigrant language classrooms. It begins by describing Deleuze and Guattari's cartographic approach. Then it traces critical literacies situated conceptually within a Freirean paradigm before mapping them differently through the Deleuzian-informed Multiple Literacies Theory (MLT). MLT frames critical literacies as reading intensively, that is, disruptively. This alternative conceptualization is then mobilized empirically in relation to the problems and politics produced in the qualitative study of one language classroom. In this classroom, reading a newspaper article provoked a series of transformative events or becomings, a concept created by Deleuze and Guattari and which is central to MLT. A research cartography is presented as a series of vignettes weaving data and concepts. This empirical mapping of media literacies and reading intensively offers insights into the politics of becoming in adult immigrant language classrooms and opens conceptual lines of flight between critical literacies and reading intensively.     

理性的分判与会通——德勒兹《康德的批判哲学》思想探析

德勒兹在《康德的批判哲学》一书中对康德思想进行了诠释,提出哲学是关于理性及其职能的学说。在第一批判中是以知性为主,想象力把直观同知性连接起来,实现对自然界的立法,理性只是起一个范导的作用。在第二批判中,是实践理性为自由的存在立法,知性只起类型化的作用。在第三批判中,没有哪种职能处于主导地位,各职能都不行使立法权,而是处于自由的和谐中,即无目的的合目的性。这就引出只有作为理性存在着的人才可能是自然的最终目的。但作为自由的人要在感性中行使自由,就会在各种倾向的冲突中使理性的各职能得以充分发挥作用,以至互相侵犯,而最终使理性在社会中得以实现。     

Computer adaptive testing,big data and algorithmic approaches to education

This article critically considers the promise of computer adaptive testing (CAT) and digital data to provide better and quicker data that will improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of schooling. In particular, it uses the case of the Australian NAPLAN test that will become an online, adaptive test from 2016. The article argues that CATs are specific examples of technological ensembles which are producing, and working through, new subjectivities. In particular, CATs leverage opportunities for big data and algorithmic approaches to education that are symptomatic of what Deleuze saw as the shift from disciplinary to control institutions and societies.     

Desiring machines and nomad spaces: neoliberalism,performativity and becoming in senior secondary drama classrooms

This paper explores Deleuze and Guattari's schizoanalysis in relation to student and teacher becomings and the way these are actualised within the neoliberal and heterosexually striated spaces of the secondary school assemblage. Deleuze and Guattari considered a narrow approach to education problematic and called for creativity as a site of ‘resistance’. Drama is one subject rich with potentiality for students to strengthen their creativity and ‘speak back’ against the neoliberal project. What our research revealed is how the drama classroom is an open, dynamic space where students can embody different identities at a critical time in their adolescent development. What is delimiting about this potentiality is the proclivity of teachers and students, as desiring machines, to conform to the dominant neoliberal culture of competitive performativity. The paper proposes that schizoanalysis offers new insights for mapping complex desire-flows and embodied identities through and against the dominant performative and heterosexist culture.     

Early childhood practice and refrains of complexity

Early childhood practice has often been described as complex in both policy documents and research literature; however, less attention has been given to exploring the nature and consequences of complexity in early childhood practice. At a time of intense policy attention in many national contexts, there is the potential for closing down, as well as for opening up conceptualisations of early childhood practice. To help keep possibilities open for multiple conceptualisations of practice, in this paper, we explore how complexity works and what it produces in early childhood practice assemblages. To do this, we draw on data fragments from research with 10 early childhood educators in NSW, Australia, and read these data with concepts from Deleuze and Guattari. We suggest four ways that our readings help articulate, and contribute to understandings of the complexity of early childhood practice.     

Poetics of the Encyclopaedia: Knowledge,Pedagogy and Research Today

This paper explores ways in which Roland Barthes' discussion of the encyclopaedia provides us with resources for thinking about education and research practice today. What Barthes addresses in his essay ‘The Plates of the Encyclopedia’ is a particular encyclopaedia, the Encyclopédie produced by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, which was published in France between 1751 and 1772. This is commonly referred as the first of a form that we recognise as the encyclopaedia today. I begin with Barthes' analysis and critique of the Encyclopédie. Barthes, writing in 1964, engages with the Encyclopédie as an iconic product of its time, seeing it as conditioned by and, in effect, reinforcing a particular way of experiencing the world. Next, I consider ways in which a parallel critique is pertinent today. I explore some current examples of encyclopaedic form in relation to education and educational research. The purpose of this is to examine the interplay between particular cultural products and their society, in which not only certain types of knowledge but also a certain conception of knowledge are produced and reinforced. So, it will not be the purpose of this paper to provide direct analysis or critique of the Enlightenment, or to provide a historical account of knowledge. Rather, what I am interested in is problematising a particular understanding of language and knowledge that arises through these cultural products, particularly with regard to educational inquiry. This lays the way for thoughts expressed by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari in What is Philosophy? which, as I shall try to show, are of help in furthering the analysis of the dominant research culture's use of such products and in imagining the task of education and research differently.     

Writing a thesis differently

In this paper we explore the contributions that Deleuze and Guattari have made to thinking/writing language and how these ideas can be put to work in producing a doctoral thesis. We contribute to the field of work within what Patti Lather and Elizabeth St Pierre have called the “post-qualitative” movement, where researchers attempt to “imagine and accomplish an inquiry that might produce different knowledge and produce knowledge differently”. We attempt to rethink the thesis text, using a language where language always falls apart, a way of talking/writing/reading about presentation of research within a doctoral thesis that will provide the writermachine a space to “pass”. The paper will provide some ideas and ways forward for writers who are attempting to deterritorialize research, who are attempting to experiment with new representational forms.     

The intercultural deterritorialization of knowledge: Al-Ghazali and the enunciation of the educator’s Rihla

ABSTRACT

This study appropriates the notion of deterritorialization, a process that determines the nature of an assemblage introduced by Deleuze and Guattari, to refer to Al-Ghazali's conceptualization of scholarship and methodology as the antithesis of the pursuit of a fixed area of research. His response to the deterritorialization of knowledge identifies an interdisciplinary approach, always in flight, which ultimately enunciates ‘rihlah’, a sojourn. It negates the notion of research as stasis and recovers its semantic origin of movement and process. The article examines intercultural practices that challenge the institutionalization of knowledge. How can Al-Ghazali's response to scepticism, knowledge, and authority inform practices in higher education today? Not only does this study aim to connect intercultural philosophical discourses to modern debates about academic expertise and the dissemination of knowledge, it equally seeks cultural and intellectual reconciliation, which is crucial today in a world that is becoming largely xenophobic, and entrapped in ethnocentric academic practices.     

Researching without representation? Language and materiality in post-qualitative methodology

The article imagines a materially informed post-qualitative research. Focusing upon issues of language and representation, under the influence of Deleuze’s Logic of Sense, it argues for research practices capable of engaging the materiality of language itself. It proposes the development of non- or post-representational research practices, drawing on contemporary materialist work that rejects the static, hierarchical logic of representation, and practices such as interpretation and analysis as conventionally understood. The article explores the ontological and the practical implications of this state of affairs, via a re-reading of a fragment of what would have been called data. Offering relief from the ressentiment and piety that have characterised qualitative methodologists’ engagements with scientific method, the ‘post’ could therefore be read as signalling the demise of qualitative research. Or at least, as inaugurating a qualitative research that would be unrepresentable to itself.