Materialities of Exclusions and (re)Participation: A Case study of Korean Language Arts Classrooms

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 9:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Material-Discursive Pedagogies and Curriculum

Abstract

This qualitative case study explores how materialities of exclusions and (re)participation unfold in two Korean language arts classes at a middle school in South Korea. Taking a new materialist perspective, we trace how entanglements involving human and nonhuman entities—particularly around notebooks—gave rise to reconfigurations of classroom practices. Analysis focused on affective intensities and material-discursive patterns across classroom scenes and student work. Findings show that teachers’ beliefs, writing norms, and institutional expectations became entangled with notebooks, leading to exclusions. Unintentional affective encounters disrupted these patterns, reconfiguring material relations and enabling new forms of participation. This study shows that participation emerges from forces exceeding human control or instructional intent.
KEYWORDS: New materialism, classroom entanglements, intra-action, affect, exclusion and (re)participation

Authors

• Sungwon Cho, Seoul National University

• Kyunghee So, Seoul National University

• Jiyoung Kim, Seoul National University

• Taegeun Yum, Seoul National University

• Soohan Lee, Seoul National University