Why a paradigm shift of ‘more than human ontologies’ is needed: putting to work poststructural and posthuman theories in writers’ studio

Abstract

This manuscript puts to work ‘more than human ontologies’ drawing on poststructural (rhizomatic) and posthumanist (intra-active) theories by plugging-in concepts with data produced in a second grade Writers’ Studio to illustrate why a paradigm shift of ‘more than human ontologies’ is needed. Specifically, how ways of doing/being/knowing (ethico-onto-epistemology) literacies are produced through intra-actions of humans and nonhumans. A second aim is to demonstrate how theory(ies) shape inquiry, how we write up transcripts and do analysis. The author puts to work data of students constructing paper Robin Hood hats to demonstrate how a dominant perspective in literacy education, New Literacy Studies (NLS), is not adequate when conceptualizing literacy as rhizomatic and intra-active. The author demonstrates analysis and discusses how these theories are paradigmatically different from NLS, a human-centered ontology. The author encourages educators to consider inventive ways of researching/teaching with ‘more than human ontologies’ and the ethics of doing so.

Keywords:

• Poststructural
• posthuman
• early childhood writing
• ontology

Acknowledgments

Thanks Jennifer Clifton, Tara Gutshall Rucker, and Angie Zapata for your contributions in pushing my thinking forward in various versions of this manuscript.

Notes

1. I use ‘our’ and ‘we’ throughout the manuscript to signify and honor the collaborative teacher/researcher partnership with Tara Gutshall Rucker. We have spent countless hours reading, thinking, writing, analyzing, teaching, and conceptualizing literacy desiring. Even though, I am solo authoring this manuscript, the thinking was collaborative with Tara. She has spent time analyzing with me the data in this manuscript and read numerous drafts, offering feedback.