Brown, S. L., Siegel, L., Blom, S. M. (2020). Entanglements of matter and meaning: The importance of the philosophy of Karen Barad for environmental education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 36(3), 219-233. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2019.29

Agential realism is a posthumanist theory in which all bodies, human and nonhuman, are defined by agency and intra-actions within different phenomena (Barad, 2007). Entanglement is a foundation of agential realism: The boundaries of observer and observed are not inherent, but rather emerge as a result of different intra-actions.

Brown et al. (2020) use Barad’s agential realist framework to envision a different approach to environmental education. The authors work from the understanding that knowledge building is a relational and participatory process (Brown et al., 2020). Barad writes that “knowledge is not a mediated activity” (Barad 2007, p. 379). This statement stands in stark contrast with the current structure of our Western educational system. It invites us to conceptualize an educational framework that acknowledges the intra-actions with the world around us.

Agential realism uses the idea of diffraction patterns. It refers to how waves interact with each other. They can amplify one another, or cancel each other out. This phenomenon can be applied to collaborative learning and discussions. The paper by Brown et al. (2020) describes their diffractive discussion of Barad’s ideas at a research symposium and summarizes the subsequent conversations of the workshop participants.

Agency and Responsibility

Agency is “not taught, learned or obtained as a human possession: it just is” (Brown et al., 2020, p. 222). All human and nonhuman matter is agential, and the boundaries emerge through intra-activity. Brown et al. (2020) asks educators to consider how agency is being enacted in teaching, and perhaps even more importantly, how it is being denied or silenced. We need to shift our focus from a human-centred approach to one that encompasses the agency of all bodies. The interconnectedness of everything and the responsibility that follows should help to guide our praxis as educators (Brown et al., 2020).

Because of the entangled nature of all matter, there is a responsibility for ethicality in our actions. How we respond and what we learn is the responsibility, or as Haraway (2016) writes, the response-ability. Brown et al. (2020) apply these ideas to the foundation of environmental education and sustainability. As humans, we are not separate from the environment but rather within it, intra-acting, and sharing in its becoming: our actions matter.

Highlights from the Workshop Groups

Brown et al. (2020) describe the physical conditions of their discussion space in detail. This description speaks to the respect for the emerging intra-actions with nonhuman matter. They acknowledge that the phenomena produced were unique to the setting and participants present. The attention to detail highlights the importance of human and nonhuman agency in education. Even within a classroom, how is meaning created differently between different groups of students or in different settings? What are the barriers to learning that may be present? Are students hungry, cold, tired, comfortable in their chairs? As educators, we need to be cognizant of the intra-actions that occur every day and the resulting phenomena.

In one discussion group, participants wondered what effect focusing on the entangled nature of living and nonliving things at a young age would have on students (2020). If children are aware of their intra-activity and connectedness to everything, the responsibility that comes with that could spill out into all aspects of their lives. I wonder how curricula would look if it was developed with this responsibility in mind? How would government policies around housing, food access, and environmentalism differ if they were made from an agential realist perspective?

Another group discussed how diffraction applies to knowledge making. Using diffraction as a methodology for discussion resulted in knowledge being formed and reformed: it was dynamic (Brown et al., 2020). Similar to the other groups, the root of the discussion came back to interconnectedness and how that affects all enactments (Brown et al., 2020).

Main Connections to Education and Conclusions

Agential realism can help us move away from binary thinking that places humans outside of the natural world (Brown et al., 2020). It challenges common anthropocentric views and identifies the inherent responsibility we have to each other and the environment which we are a part of. The importance of this relationality extends out of environmentalism into all aspects of curriculum and beyond.

Furthermore, agential realism lays the foundation for the importance of interdisciplinary learning (Brown et al., 2020). Adopting this approach, we become aware of the complex and interconnected nature of the learning process. If we continue to separate learning into distinct subjects, we are missing out on critical opportunities to develop new ways for knowledge to emerge.

Brown et al., (2020) use Barad’s agential realism theory to conceptualize change in environmental education. Agential realism helps us question everything and dig deeper into what it means to be human and how that relates to the praxis of education.

References

Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning (pp. 39-70, 132-185). Duke University Press.

Brown, S. L., Siegel, L., Blom, S. M. (2020). Entanglements of matter and meaning: The importance of the philosophy of Karen Barad for environmental education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 36(3), 219-233. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2019.29

Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.