Stumbling into the ‘kitchen island’: Becoming through intra-actions with objects and theories

Abstract

This article draws on new materialism, especially the work of Karen Barad, in order to explore curious encounters and intra-actions within the context of a Norwegian kindergarten. The article argues that intra-actions between both human and non-human agents can potentiate forms of learning as well as forms of knowledge that can be neither anticipated nor predicted. This acquisition of new learning and new knowledge applies to both the (re)searchers as well as in relation to teachers and children. The article, in illustrating these transformations, calls attention to the work and play of diffraction, affect and agency. It is argued that the movements and intermingling that occur between and through each constitute what Gilles Deleuze refers to as ‘becoming’. The article goes on to suggest that in becoming, including ‘becoming (re)searcher’, there are possibilities for resisting habitual and sedimented practices.