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Research topic/aim
Traditionally, education for sustainability has focused on the importance of children being in nature, children taking care of for nature and how we can strengthen the children as agents of change [for the nature]. In these sense children is viewed as the solution for transformation and changes within our current planetary crisis - towards a sustainable future. From a Posthuman point of view, viewing the children as the future solution for a better sustainable future creates the children/the human as a rationally problem solver, a constructer of the world, standing outside the material processes. The aim of my project is to explore education for sustainability through ongoing encounters with the dynamics of life – eco and techno and - , where human and non-human affect and are being affected in symbiotic nature-culture relations. An approach where children/the human as part of nature, is not able by itself to prevent, repair and/or reverse present and future sustainability issues, without simultaneously open up for non-human affective productions. Through the project, I explore EcoTechnoDataPhilosophical workshops as knowledgeconstructions in/as Education for Sustainabililty. Through this encounters, I ask [in]directly what kind of subject position regarded professionalism within early childhood education and care, a posthuman approach to education for sustainability brings to question.
Theoretical framework
The theoretical anchoring point for this project, is a/the posthuman subject as relational, affective and embodied (Braidotti, 2018). Thinking with more than from a non-position, subject position (Deleuze & Guattari, 2013), as a way of including and think with, rather than as acting from the outside of the material processes. Changes is within this approach not about individual change, but about “giving to the world the power to change us, to “force” our thinking” (Stengers, 2008, s. 57).
Methodology/research design
This project is located within a postqualitative approach. An approach where thinking and experimenting with the refrain inspired from the philosophy of Deleuze og Guattari (2013), is/as my theory-method. Thinking with and from a non-position subject position to include and embrace difference. To fabricate line of flight as a way of betraying – and make perceptible – the power of the territory (Stengers, 2008). To stay with the trouble (Haraway, 2016) and ask multiple fruitful question. Questions regarded a/the subject position of a/the professional within early childhood education for sustainability.
Expected results/findings
The paper will discuss a preliminary analysis of EcoTechnoDataPhilosophical workshops as Knowledgeconstructions in/as Education for Sustainability.
Relevance to Nordic educational research
How we position the children within our current planetary crisis, is a central topic both locally and globally.
References
Braidotti, R. (2018). A Theoretical Framework for the Critical Posthumanities. Theory, Culture & Society, 0(0), p. 1-31. doi: 10.1177/0263276418771486
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (2013). A Thousand Plateaus (B. Massumi, Trans.). London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble. Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durkham: Duke University Press.
Stengers, I. (2008). Experimenting with refrains: Subjectivity and the challenge of escaping modern dualism. Subjectivity, 22(1), p. 38-59.
