Educational Research as Assemblage: Moving Beyond Researcher Demographics

• In Event: 70.031 - New Materialisms and the Ontologies of Social Context: Critical Inquiry on Equity and Justice in Education

Abstract

That research is a subjective endeavor is accepted. And yet, exploring what that means beyond researcher 'bias' remains at bay in much of social science, including educational research. This is evidenced in the ways that researchers' perspectives are discussed in terms of demographics (gender identity, race, sometimes SES).Recent scholarship and theorization (Jackson, 2013), though, prompts for engagement with research as mutually constitutive phenomena that does not exist prior to interactions but comes into being through contact (Barad, 2007). In this paper, I will provide examples of research frames, analysis, and presentations that are explicit about the 'coming into being' that occurs in all research projects. Specifically, I will consider what is afforded by research into community policing when conducted by youth who experienced in restorative justice approaches.

Author

• Lisa (Leigh) Patel, Boston College