Twisting, Turning, and Folding More-Than-Human Methodologies

• In Event: Dwelling and the More-Than-Human in Education

Abstract

Methodological debates in environmental education research have proliferated, yet the question of how to engage the more-than-human in research remains. In this theoretical paper, we explore more-than-human methodologies by decentring the current anthropocentric/ecocentric debate into the folds of actor-network theory, embodied and a/r/tographic research, and indigenous epistemologies and ontologies. We question “giving voice” to the natural world, and the impossibilities of representation this implies. Using the metaphor of the möbius strip, we explore polyvocal research through creative entanglements, engagements, and shifts in posture and ways of knowing. Along the theme, “To know is now enough,” these methodologies blur the relationships between research and practice by bringing new collectives and modes of engagement into environmental education research.

Authors

• Julia Kathleen Ostertag, The University of British Columbia

• Chessa Adsit-Morris, The University of British Columbia