Chapter 14: Reimagining Research Methodologies Through a Posthuman Lens: Returning to Mattering in Science Classrooms

Historically, research methodologies in schools and education in the United States have championed notions of objectivity, neutrality, technical rationality, and efficiency (Arce et al., 2005; No Child Left Behind, 2001; Taubman, 2009). More recently, they have prized evidence-based and data-driven measures of accountability” (St. Pierre, 2011). Despite these efforts to objectively investigate schools, “wicked problems” (Rittel & Webber, 1973), which are not well defined and do not have prescribed set of potential solutions, in education continue to be pervasive. For instance, we continue to face “wicked problems” with respect to: 1) equity and access in science education whereby systemic inequities related to identity categories such as race, ethnicity, gender, and ability continue to oppress and marginalize minoritized and vulnerable student populations (Bowskill, 2016; Brantlinger, 2003; Noguera, 2003; Posey-Maddox, 2017), 2) educational policy reform including educational funding whereby K–12 discipline policies and punitive practices disproportionately impact low-income and minority students with higher rates of suspensions and expulsions than their peers (Carter et al., 2014; Welsh & Little, 2018), 3) achievement gaps whereby students from low socioeconomic status continue to perform poorly in schools (Berkowitz et al., 2017), and 4) teacher shortage and quality in which by attracting and retaining highly qualified and motivated teachers is becoming more difficult due to factors such as low salaries, high workloads, limited professional development opportunities, and teacher burnout (Amitai & Van Houtte, 2022; Podolsky et al., 2016).