An Agential Realist Approach to Research on Racism and Antiblackness in Schools

• In Event: Educational Research at the Intersection of Contemporary Black Studies and Posthumanism: Risks, Possibilities, and Purpose

Abstract

1. Purposes: Racism does not sit still for our study of it. Its manifestations exceed any single traditional unit of social scientific analysis—at times operating through individual bias, economic capital and material constraints, semiotic and discursive practices, pervasive affects, among other things. Additionally, racism has proven resilient to many forms of intervention. It mutates, adapts, and re-emerges in different forms when opposed (Alexander, 2012). In fact, racism often co-opts the very systems of knowledge and policies we use to resist it, bending them to its own reproduction (Bell, 1993; Sexton, 2011; Wilderson, 2020). Consequently, there is no stance a researcher can take that is “outside” of racism from which to get a comprehensive view of its operation. This paper reflects on how the protean and insidious nature of racism presents a challenge for educational research design and, building upon recent work in the field of education (Braidotti, Bozalek, Shefer, & Zembylas, 2018; Brown, 2013; Lather, 2022; Patel, 2015; Rose, 2015; Snaza & Tarc, 2019; Zembylas, 2022), offers a possible response.
2. Theoretical frameworks: Two theoretical literatures are drawn upon to develop a response to this methodological challenge: 1) contemporary anti-Blackness theory, specifically Sylvia Wynter’s work on sociogenics and inquiry that produces new modes of political being (Wynter & Scott, 2000; Wynter & McKittrick, 2015); and 2) posthumanist philosophy of science, specifically Karen Barad’s agential realism (Barad, 2007; Barad & Gandorfer, 2021).
3. Data sources: The paper draws examples from two research projects: 1) a 10-year study of the racial resegregation of a U.S. public school district that had its federal desegregation order lifted; and 2) a 2-year study of teachers’ adapting their anti-racist curricula to changing ideological circumstances in schools and classrooms. In both cases, the manifestations of racism were fluid. These cases are used to illustrate the need for study designs with a flexible unit of analysis and, therefore, a dynamic ontology of their object of study.
4. Modes of inquiry: The two empirical studies used anti-Blackness theory and posthumanist philosophy to analyze participant observation, interview, and archival data. The paper, however, is primarily conceptual, presenting ideas about how these parallel onto-epistemic frameworks can be used together to advance anti-racist educational scholarship.
5. Substantiated conclusions: 1) An agential realist account of racism provides ontological support for claims found in anti-Blackness theory and some critical race theory that social pessimism is a more appropriate basis for anti-racist activism. 2) Wynter’s sociogenics and Barad’s agential realism provide complementary guidance for a more immersive and speculative practice of research on/within the macro- and micro-political realities of institutionalized racism.
6. Scholarly significance: Many scholars have critiqued posthumanist social analysis for its tepid engagement with issues of institutionalized racism (Byrd, 2011) or, worse, its casual dismissal of all forms of identity politics (Weheliye, 2014; Ahmed, 2004; King, 2020). This paper acknowledges the validity of those concerns and contributes to a growing effort to put the complementary features of anti-Blackness theory and posthumanist theory to work in the struggle against racism in educational settings.

Authors

• Jerry L. Rosiek, University of Oregon
  Presenting Author

• Alexander B. Pratt, Pennsylvania State University - Altoona
  Presenting Author