Posthuman Research Practices in Education

How do we include and develop understandings of those beyond-the-human aspects of the world in social research? Through fifteen contributions from leading international thinkers, this text provides original approaches to posthumanist research practices in education. Contributors respond to the following questions: What do empirically grounded explorations of posthumanism look like in practice? How can they be designed? What sorts of 'data' are produced and how might they be analysed? And, importantly, what are the social, cultural and educational impacts of empirically driven posthuman research? The contributors to this text change the parameters of research through thinking relationally with other beings/matter and recognizing their vitality and agency. Methodologically the contributors operationalize the unself, give focus to shadow stories and the entanglement of the researcher and research apparatus. They provide analytic tools such as rhizomatic readings and cartography mapping, edu-crafting, diffraction, Indigenous storywork, intra-action and affective pedagogy and rework and transform known methodologies, such as participatory research, qualitative approaches and photo-voice.

Carol Taylor is Reader at the Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University, UK. Her research focuses on space, gender, bodies and materialities, student engagement and ethics, and creative research methodologies. Her work has been published widely, and she is a member of the Editorial Boards of Gender and Education and the Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education. 

Christina Hughes is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK. Her research focusses on equity and gender issues and she has longstanding interests in methodological concerns. She has published widely in this area and is co-editor of the International Journal of Social Research Methodology.


Luke Bennett, Sheffield Hallam University, UK
Mindy Blaise, Victoria University, Australia 
Ken Gale, Plymouth University, UK 
Susanne Gannon, Western Sydney University, Australia 
Anna Hickey-Moody, Goldsmiths, UK 
Marc Higgins, University of British Columbia, Canada 
Rachel Holmes, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK 
Te Kawehau Hoskins, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Christina Hughes, University of Warwick, UK 
Gabrielle Ivinson, University of Aberdeen, UK 
Alecia Youngblood Jackson, Appalachian State University, USA
Alison Jones, University of Auckland, New Zealand 
Elizabeth Jones, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong 
Hillevi Lenz Taguchi, Stockholm University, Sweden 
Lisa A. Mazzei, University of Oregon, USA 
Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw, University of Victoria, Canada
Jocey Quinn, Plymouth University, UK 
Emma Renold, Cardiff University, UK 
Jessica Ringrose, UCL Institute of Education, UK 
Elizabeth Adams St Pierre, University of Georgia, USA
Affrica Taylor, University of Canberra, Australia 
Carol A. Taylor, Sheffield Hallam University, UK