A double-bind? Taking new materialisms elsewhere in studies of education and childhood

This article outlines and critically reflects upon four tensions – framed as “double-binds’ – in new materialist scholarship on childhood and education. Firstly, I tackle arguments about data and the role of the researcher in studies of education, which I reframe as a question of intentionality. Secondly, I critically consider debates about the agency and voice of nonhuman matter and a problematic Anthropomorphism that is (rather ambiguously) often entrained therein. Thirdly, I explore what advances in (and critiques of) new materialist approaches mean for a range of pressing global debates affecting children and especially education. Finally, I examine the potential role that interdisciplinarity might play in taking new materialisms elsewhere than debates about researcher/nonhuman agency/intentionality.