Taproot, rhizome, disappointment, possibility: action research with(in) sociomaterial perspectives

Abstract

ABSTRACT Inspired by the question ‘how might we do Action Research differently?’, this article provides an introductory diffractive mapping of the concepts and empirical studies intersecting Action Research and sociomaterial theories. After tracing the roots of Action Research, I zigzag to describing how Action Research has grown differently in prior studies informed by sociomaterial theories. I use these theories to disrupt everyday assumptions about Action Research in education and to make thinking visible and unfamiliar. I offer up a series of short vignettes based on a recently completed Action Research project with French as a Second Language (FSL) teachers in Ontario, Canada. I collide these data events with various sociomaterial concepts to open new opportunities for analysis when engaging in Action Research. Specifically, I engage the phases of the Action Research cycle and more-than-human collaboration in a research project to highlight the ways in which these processes are created and unfold uniquely, and how rhizomatic thinking can further open trajectories for transformation within this work.