This keynote is propelled by the over-arching proposal that posthuman times require us to think, do and imagine higher education pedagogy differently. It argues the need for a posthumanist feminist materialist approach to pedagogy, grounded in relational ontologies, so that we might attend to (and hail into becoming) more hope-full modes of education, and make our universities more hospitable places. At the heart of my discussion are three questions:
- What are pedagogies of mattering?
- What theory-knowledge-praxis orientations underpin the conceptualisation of pedagogies of mattering? And
- How might we re-shape research approaches to attend better to pedagogies of mattering?
I suggest that pedagogies of mattering, considered and shaped by posthumanist feminist materialisms, offer a more expansive account of the relationalities of human, non-human and other-than-human bodies, objects, spaces, and materialities. They speak into the need for affirmative, speculative, attentive, curious and care-full teaching and learning practices. In outlining how pedagogies of mattering can help reimagine key aspects of higher education (curriculum, teaching and learning, and assessment), I engage the concepts-in-relation of love and kindness; belonging and power; creativity and criticality.
The Keynote Lecture is part of the program of the First Annual Elkana Symposium on Reimagining Teaching and Learning.
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Bio
Carol A. Taylor is Professor of Higher Education and Gender in the Department of Education at the University of Bath where she leads the Reimagining Education for Better Futures Research Group. Carol’s research focuses on the entangled relations of knowledge, power, gender, space, and ethics in higher education. Her work develops and utilizes transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary posthumanist and feminist new materialist theories and methodologies. Carol is co-editor of Gender and Education; is a member of several editorial boards, including Journal of Posthumanism, Matter, Teaching in Higher Education, and Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning. Her work has been published in qualitative and higher education journals.