Countering Epistemological Exclusion Through Critical-Ethical Research to Support Social Justice

The dominance of neoliberalism in the west such as Australia and the UK and its insistence on impact measurement can lead researchers into an unquestioning adoption of scientific methods of measurement and data collection. We argue that if methods are not appropriate for the participants or context they are likely to reproduce existing societal inequities and positions of marginalisation and powerlessness. The theoretical position for fit-for-purpose research and evaluation tools, and specifically for social science methods is put forward theoretically and substantiated with cases drawn from diverse communities in Australia and the UK. Further, we will use autoethnography to share our experiences to argue that any research or evaluation endeavour should have as many benefits for the participants as for the researchers and wider stakeholders, a measure we argue should be the acid test for research ethics. The implications of these findings for researchers, evaluators, practitioners and policy makers are drawn out.

Anthropocentric Poetry

This chapter draws on a range of empirical arts-based projects and publications to explore how poetry helps us think about the limitations of human intentionality as curriculum design in the Anthropocene, in spaces of both formal and informal or public learning. The chapter sketches a chronology of arts-based research more broadly, and also specifically in relation to education, and includes examples of the author's widely published research poetry to demonstrate the evolution of this form of inquiry.

Using Narrative Inquiry to Explore “Wicked Problems” in Educational Leadership in the Anthropocene

A highly contested issue in educational leadership research is the place of narrative inquiry to study school leadership practice. While the study of narratives has had long epistemological roots in the works of Dewey, Bruner, Clandinin, and Connelly, its potential for revealing the human condition and providing deeper insights into critical issues like power, inequity, social justice, and oppression is often underestimated. Moreover, the method has also drawn much debate for its limitations ranging from its highly reflexive nature to issues of validity and reliability of “storied” experiences. This chapter outlines some arguments for the use of narrative inquiry and suggests a nuanced and expanded understanding of the method as a viable approach to study “wicked” problems in the age of Anthropocene. The chapter also aims to inspire further discussions of how narrative inquiry could be further re-conceptualized to study educational leadership in the anthropogenic era.

Adults Researching Pre-Schoolers in More-Than-Human Contexts

Drawing on their reflective conversations, the authors argue that existing educational research paradigms may be insufficient for understanding how researchers are mutually affecting, and affected by, encounters with both the human and more-than-human, as spoken of in Rautio and Jokinen, whilst engaging in ethnographic research with pre-school children. Through empirically grounded reflections in the social and material spaces of kindergartens and family homes, we aim to reflect and raise critical questions about existing educational research paradigms, focusing on: 1. The intrinsic tensions between child-centered and post-human paradigms. 2. The (in)stability of researcher identity in the Anthropocene. 3. The unique research context(s) of early childhood play. The chapter concludes by proposing for debate several new norms for the kind of ‘identity work' in which researchers grappling with the emergent post-human and Anthropocentric traditions might consider engaging.

Solving the Wicked Problems of the Anthropocene

As a research paradigm, Marx's insights can be used to grapple with the ‘wicked problem' of the Anthropocene: to explain the current crisis; judge the various scholarly representations of it; and point towards a transcendence of the ‘problem'. In the same vein, this chapter seeks to provide a Marxist paradigm for educational research in the era of the Anthropocene. The chapter thus identifies two ‘wicked problems' and suggests solutions: firstly, the urgent need for a robust and plausible paradigm for programs of educational research seeking to discover, analyse and understand the dynamics of the Anthropocene from the micro-political to the macro-political, which Marx's paradigm provides; secondly, a guide to the type of action needed to make educational institutions democratic and sustainable and part of the solution to the ‘wicked problem' of the Anthropocene, rather than sites that reproduce a workforce ready to be exploited and oppressed, which Marx's paradigm also provides.

Researching With Children of the Anthropocene

This chapter takes the age of Anthropocene as the time of human entanglement in the fate of the planet, dated by some from the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We propose, however, that the full awareness of the consequences of this entanglement will only be felt by children born in the twenty-first century into an entirely different world than the one we know and understand. Interestingly, in the light of this contention, early childhood leads the field of educational research in posthuman scholarship, which we associate with the rise of scholarly work galvanised around the notion of the Anthropocene. These approaches draw variously on Haraway's common worlds, Barad's new materialism, and Deleuze and Guatarri's nomadic philosophies.

Mixing Methodologies

Should research in a particular field follow the traditional or favoured methodologies associated with that field, or, if it is desirable for the empirical methods of research to be mixed, can the same not be said for the theoretical standpoint of the research design? Does mixing methodologies imply that methodologies can be placed on a sliding scale to create a new methodology from combining elements of the old; or does it imply an iterative or cyclical process, using a suitable methodology for the stage in the research? This chapter explores what combining qualitative and quantitative methods actually means in terms of social and educational research and how this can assist in developing a mixed methodological approach suitable for addressing wicked problems faced in education in the rapidly evolving Anthropocene epoch. To address these issues, the chapter proposes a new term for combining methodologies: ‘omniduction,' which encompasses induction, deduction and abduction and utilises each as the research, rather than the researcher, dictates.

Is Complexity Thinking a Useful Frame for Change-Oriented Educational Research?

This chapter explores the extent to which complexity thinking is useful for framing change-oriented educational research - particularly research with a focus on education's future. Its starting point is that the advent of the Anthropocene challenges some of education's foundational concepts, so much so that, if we want to continue to have an education system, substantial re-thinking is required. The chapter reviews the literature on future-focused education. It then looks at complexity thinking in general, and at how it is being used in educational contexts. Using this, it explores the issues this raises for how we think about research in general, and education in particular, and suggests some strategies for framing the kind of research that will be needed to support education's re-development for the age of the Anthropocene.

Investigating Human Consciousness Through Florian Znaniecki's Humanistic Sociology and Memoir Method

In the search for social approaches that could contribute to deepening our understanding of issues related to what has been called the Age of the Anthropocene, the conceptual framework and memoir method of humanistic sociology are well worth considering. According to Znaniecki, memoirs (including letters, autobiographies and diaries), as well as personal statements on specific topics, were very valuable sources of data for humanistic sociological analysis. The humanistic conceptual framework and methods have proved to be well suited to investigating how individuals of different cultural communities, as well as those of the Anglo-Celtic majority, viewed the reality of cultural and linguistic diversity in Australia and how this affected their sense of identity. Examples from Australian research on the issue of individuals' sense of cultural identity are presented and analysed to show how the approach can provide insights into the consciousness of participants.

“The World is Gone, I Must Carry You”

At the end of the Anthropocene the world will be gone. Or at least it will be gone from a human habitation point of view. What does this mean? Clearly ‘the world' will no longer exist- because there will be no one on it to know about its existence. This brings up a very important question that needs to be faced: If the world's existence depends on human knowledge of it, is the bifurcation that most Western modern capitalo-science rests on- between the ‘human' and ‘nature'- correct? This chapter explores some of the implications of this question for doing post-critical educational research.