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Cutting Through Water : Towards a Posthuman Theory of Educational Relationality

Ceder, Simon LU (2016)
Abstract
Based on an ongoing debate—academic as well as public—regarding the roles of the teacher and the student in education, this thesis explores educational relations within the field of philosophy of education. After critically examining intersubjective approaches to theories of educational relations, I localize anthropocentrism and subject-centrism (teacher/student) as two problematic aspects of the aforementioned approaches. These aspects are deeply connected with various humanistic ideas. Instead, I turn to posthuman philosophy and more specifically, I propose post-anthropocentrism and intra-relationality as a theoretical framework. Diffraction is hereby suggested as an appropriate posthuman methodology that reads texts and memory stories... (More)
Based on an ongoing debate—academic as well as public—regarding the roles of the teacher and the student in education, this thesis explores educational relations within the field of philosophy of education. After critically examining intersubjective approaches to theories of educational relations, I localize anthropocentrism and subject-centrism (teacher/student) as two problematic aspects of the aforementioned approaches. These aspects are deeply connected with various humanistic ideas. Instead, I turn to posthuman philosophy and more specifically, I propose post-anthropocentrism and intra-relationality as a theoretical framework. Diffraction is hereby suggested as an appropriate posthuman methodology that reads texts and memory stories relationally in order to develop new ideas. The theory and methodology used are mainly inspired by posthuman feminist philosophers Karen Barad and Donna Haraway.

The main contribution of the thesis is introducing and developing a posthuman theory of educational relations, which is called educational relationality. The main analysis is executed through a diffractive reading of intersubjective theories on educational relations and posthuman philosophy, resulting in five co-concepts. The first co-concept developed is impermanence, which means that educational relationality and the world are constantly in movement. Uniqueness-as-relationality proposes that uniqueness appears relationally, rather than connected to a single human subject. Proximity describes the closeness of relationality, which is ethical, material, and sensible. Edu-activity is where education is located according to educational relationality. Finally, intelligibility is suggested as a posthuman approach to learning. The co-concepts conceptualize the theory of educational relationality. I ground these concepts with two educational examples, literacy dogs and augmented reality technology, which are read through the co-concepts and additional posthuman philosophy. The analysis provided through these examples demonstrates the potential of using the proposed theory and its co-concepts in everyday practices, even when nonhumans are a part of the educational relation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
supervisor
opponent
  • professor Todd, Sharon, Maynooth University, Ireland
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
keywords
diffraction, educational relationality, humanism, intra-relationality, posthumanism
pages
232 pages
publisher
Lund University
defense location
Nedre Palaestra, Paradisgatan 4, Lund
defense date
2016-02-05 13:15:00
ISBN
978-91-7623-604-8
978-91-7623-605-5
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d5e67517-146c-45b1-b622-b2dbeb0a0f75 (old id 8410784)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 12:50:40
date last changed
2021-01-04 16:55:40
@phdthesis{d5e67517-146c-45b1-b622-b2dbeb0a0f75,
  abstract     = {{Based on an ongoing debate—academic as well as public—regarding the roles of the teacher and the student in education, this thesis explores educational relations within the field of philosophy of education. After critically examining intersubjective approaches to theories of educational relations, I localize anthropocentrism and subject-centrism (teacher/student) as two problematic aspects of the aforementioned approaches. These aspects are deeply connected with various humanistic ideas. Instead, I turn to posthuman philosophy and more specifically, I propose post-anthropocentrism and intra-relationality as a theoretical framework. Diffraction is hereby suggested as an appropriate posthuman methodology that reads texts and memory stories relationally in order to develop new ideas. The theory and methodology used are mainly inspired by posthuman feminist philosophers Karen Barad and Donna Haraway.<br/><br/>The main contribution of the thesis is introducing and developing a posthuman theory of educational relations, which is called educational relationality. The main analysis is executed through a diffractive reading of intersubjective theories on educational relations and posthuman philosophy, resulting in five co-concepts. The first co-concept developed is impermanence, which means that educational relationality and the world are constantly in movement. Uniqueness-as-relationality proposes that uniqueness appears relationally, rather than connected to a single human subject. Proximity describes the closeness of relationality, which is ethical, material, and sensible. Edu-activity is where education is located according to educational relationality. Finally, intelligibility is suggested as a posthuman approach to learning. The co-concepts conceptualize the theory of educational relationality. I ground these concepts with two educational examples, literacy dogs and augmented reality technology, which are read through the co-concepts and additional posthuman philosophy. The analysis provided through these examples demonstrates the potential of using the proposed theory and its co-concepts in everyday practices, even when nonhumans are a part of the educational relation.}},
  author       = {{Ceder, Simon}},
  isbn         = {{978-91-7623-604-8}},
  keywords     = {{diffraction; educational relationality; humanism; intra-relationality; posthumanism}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Lund University}},
  school       = {{Lund University}},
  title        = {{Cutting Through Water : Towards a Posthuman Theory of Educational Relationality}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/6008016/8411680.pdf}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}