Evaluating the quality of posthuman music education research: diffracting quality criteria through response-ability

ABSTRACT

Although encompassing a variety of research approaches, qualitative research in music education shares the assumption that reality is socially constructed; it takes this construction to be based on the specific perspective of the individual human; and it considers epistemology and ontology to be different fields of study. The posthuman theory of agential realism, on the other hand, argues that the world is becoming through intra-actions; it decentres the individual humanist subject; and it studies onto-epistemology – practices of knowing-in-being. Considering these fundamental differences, the quality criteria of qualitative research are not applicable to posthuman music education research. Nevertheless, posthuman research is concerned with the ethics of research and how to response-ably and ethically take part in the world’s becoming. Thus, the emerging field of posthuman music education research must develop other ways of evaluating research beyond the quality criteria found in qualitative methodologies. This paper argues that diffraction – both as a physical and musical phenomenon and as a philosophical concept – might be a fruitful approach. By reading quality criteria diffractively through the agential realist concept of response-ability, it poses critical and creative questions, moving us towards evaluating the quality of posthuman music education research on its own terms.

KEYWORDS:

• Postqualitative inquiry
• agential realism
• posthumanism
• diffraction
• music education research
• research quality

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Roger Mantie and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments in response to an earlier draft of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mari Ystanes Fjeldstad

Mari Ystanes Fjeldstad (PhD) is a violin teacher, music teacher, and independent scholar. Her doctoral study Knots of knowing-in-playing: Stories from violin lessons read through agential realism explore how violin lessons in a Norwegian school of music and performing arts are enacted. Her research interests include music education, posthuman philosophies, Sámi onto-epistemologies, storytelling, and social justice.