Plasticity and Contagion: A Post-Qualitative Update to the Symbolic Scientificities Used in Educational Research

• In Event: 34.076 - Genealogical Tours and Control Societies: Threads of Truth and Power in Educational Research

Abstract

The paper is a philosophical analysis that continues, and updates, the trajectories of critiquing educational research as a set of ‘scientifistic’ practices. The paper establishes the idea of ‘scientificity’ developed by Michel Foucault (1970), and subsequently used by Patti Lather (2006) to examine how educational research justifies and legitimates itself. The paper updates this particular trajectory by discussing Catherine Malabou’s (2015) idea of ‘plasticity’ and Luciana Parisi’s (2013) idea of ‘contagion’. The paper argues that plasticity and contagion are the most recent threats to habitual uses of symbolic thought and rationalities typically used to justify and legitimate educational research as a scientific practice. Extensions are made to contemporary ideas of ‘post-qualitative’ and ‘post-human’ educational research.

Authors

• Petra Mikulan, University of British Columbia

• Taylor Webb, The University of British Columbia