Enacted Realities in Teachers' Experiences: Bringing Materialism Into Pragmatism

• In Event: Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: Intersections of Culture and Curriculum With Teachers, Students, and Education

Abstract

In this paper we recognize the renewal of interest in realism and examine the possible links that can be drawn between transactional realism (Sleeper, 1986/2001; Biesta, 2014) and the “new materialism,” here represented by actor-network theory (ANT) (Latour, 2011; Rosiek, 2013). Our argument is that to really understand the different levels of aspects that influence teachers’ actions and the condition of teaching, it is necessary to start from the local, and from there trace the human and material factors that may affect teachers’ room for action. Thus, the starting point needs to be taken from areas of space and time where teachers are actually affected in their work, whether inside or outside the school institution.

Authors

• Elin Sundström-Sjödin, Orebro University

• Ninni Wahlstrom, Linnaeus University