Putting the steam back into critique?‘Gathering’ for critical–dissensual collaborations in education policy research

Abstract

Bruno Latour famously asked, ‘Why has critique run out of steam?’. In this paper we draw on his ideas to present some resources for ‘gathering’ – for doing education policy research with others – which we term ‘critical–dissensual collaboration’. We believe that our education policy research ‘critique from afar’ may indeed have run out of steam and we make some proposals for doing critical research, but with (a diversity of) others. We offer resources for undertaking critical–dissensual, collaborative education policy research – where, as Law suggested, ‘realities are not secure but instead they have to be practised’. This extends the conceptualisation of enactment that Stephen Ball and colleagues have made; from focusing on ‘how schools do policy’ to how researchers and schools (re)do policy together. This article is part of our attempt to underpin this redoing of policy with a politics of dissensus and to develop alternative resources to those that enable a ‘god’s eye view’, as Haraway proposed, of policy research. In our capacity as critical education policy researchers we have collaborated as policy actors with others in schools, and this article arises from this work. We discuss what we term ‘starter’ concepts as a contribution toward elucidating resources for a dissensual politics of ‘gathering’ in critical collaborations.