The immanence of the gaze: Between the (con)fines of reflection and the (dis)orientations of a diffractive methodology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.1970-2221/23161Keywords:
diffractive methodology, reflective practitioner, posthumanism, early childhood pedagogy, observationAbstract
The official documents that guide the professionality of early childhood educators in Italy define this role through the paradigm of the reflective practitioner. This article seeks to problematize such a conception by exploring the possible displacements that emerge when the notion of reflection is interrogated through posthuman perspectives. Diffractive methodology is adopted as an epistemological strategy capable of unveiling the tendency of reflection to inscribe itself in professional practice as a tautological immanence, reproducing established assumptions and limiting the transformative potential of educational action. It is argued that diffraction operates as a dis/articulating device that generates tensions at the (con)fines of the very construct of reflexivity. This movement engenders an affirmative reconfiguration of educational processes characteristic of early childhood contexts, such as pedagogical observation, adult–child relations, and the formation of professional identity, understood as an ethical–onto–epistemological entanglement in continuous (re)invention.
References
Ann, O. W., Swanto, S., & AlSaqqaf, A. (2018). Pre-service ESL teachers engaging in reflective practice: Current observations and perceived challenges. Journal of Research, Policy & Practice of Teachers and Teacher Education, 8(2), 5-18. https://doi.org/10.37134/jrpptte.vol8.no2.2.2018
Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Signs, 28(3), 801–831. https://doi.org/10.1086/345321
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv12101zq
Barad, K. (2010). Quantum entanglements and hauntological relations of inheritance: Dis/continuities, spacetime enfoldings, and justice-to-come. Derrida Today, 3(2), 240-268. https://doi.org/10.1353/tae.2021.0002
Barad, K. (2014). Diffracting diffraction: Cutting together-apart. Parallax, 20(3), 168– 187. https://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2014.927623
Barad, K., & Gandorfer, D. (2021). Political desirings: Yearnings for mattering (,) differently. Theory & Event, 24(1), 14–66. https://doi.org/10.1353/tae.2021.0002
Batista, E. P. (2024). A escrita do corpo na cena pedagógica: A teatralidade docente. Urdimentos - Revista de Estudos em Artes Cênicas, 4(34), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.5965/1414573104532024e107
Bispo dos Santos, A. (2023). A terra dá, a terra quer. Ubu Editora / Piseagrama.
Bondioli, A., & Ferrari, M. (2004). Verso un progetto di qualità: La valutazione nei servizi educativi per l’infanzia. Edizioni Junior.
Bozalek, V., & Romano, N. (2023). Immanent and diffractive critique in scholarship and publication. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning (CriSTaL), 11(si1), 1-18. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-cristal-v11-nsi1-a2
Bozalek, V., & Zembylas, M. (2016). Diffraction or reflection? Sketching the contours of two methodologies in ed-ucational research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 30(2), 111–127. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2016.1201166
Braidotti, R. (2013). The Posthuman. Polity.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.
Caetano-Silva, G., Guzmán-Simón, F., & Pacheco-Costa, A. (2024). Revisiting Reggio Emilia through a more-than-human lullaby: Diffractive montages as documenting childhood (and) literacy otherwise. Pedagogy Culture and Society, 32(4), 905–922. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2024.2355109
Davies, B. (2014). Reading anger in early childhood intra-actions: A diffractive analysis. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(6), 734-74.https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800414530256
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (2010) O que é filosofia? (trad. di B. Prado Jr. e A. A. Muñoz). Editora 34. (Opera originale pubblicata nel 1991).
Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. MA D.C. Heath.
Emilson, A., & Folkesson, A.-M. (2006). Children's participation and teacher control. Early Child Development and Care, 176(3–4), 219–238. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430500039846
Fendler, L. (2003). Teacher reflection in a hall of mirrors: Historical influences and political reverberations. Educational Researcher, 32(3), 16-25. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X032003016
Fernandes, I. (2022). Diálogos sobre a progettazione educativa, a documentação pedagógica e os espaços. In E. P. Ba-tista & B. Campos (Eds.), Formações de Narizinho: Uma ideia de formação continuada (pp. 161–198). Pedro & João Editores.
Fine, M., & Glendinning, C. (2005). Dependence, independence or inter-dependence? Revisiting the concepts of “care” and “dependency.” Ageing & Society, 25(4), 601–621. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X05003600
Giudici, C., Krechevsky, M., & Rinaldi, C. (2009). Rendere visibile l’apprendimento: Bambini che apprendono individualmente e in gruppo. Reggio Children.
Günther-Hanssen, A., Jobér, A., & Andersson, K. (2021). From swings, through physics, with pendulums, to gendering: Returning diffractive analyses on science and gender in preschool. Reconceptualizing Educational Research Methodology, 12(2), 21-43. https://doi.org/10.7577/rerm.4678
Haraway, D. J. (1988). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575–599. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066
Haraway, D. J. (1997). Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan©_Meets_OncoMouse™: Feminism and technoscience. Routledge.
Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.
Hickey-Moody, A., Palmer, H., & Sayers, E. (2016). Diffractive pedagogies: Dancing across new materialist imaginaries. Gender and Education, 28(2), 213–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2016.1140723
Huynh, H. T. (2022). Promoting professional development in language teaching through reflective practice. Vietnam Journal of Education, 6(1), 62–68. https://doi.org/10.52296/vje.2022.126
Juelskjær, M. (2024). Inquiring with cascade questioning: Sketching a phenomenon. In L. Mazzei & A. Y. Jackson (Eds.), Postfoundational approaches to qualitative inquiry (pp. 147-162). Routledge.
Juelskjær, M., Plauborg, H., & Adrian, S. W. (2021). Dialogues on agential realism: Engaging in worldings through research practice. Routledge.
Juelskjær, M., & Schwennesen, N. (2012). Intra-active entanglements: An interview with Karen Barad. Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, 1–2, 10–23. https://doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v0i1-2.28068
Kohan, W., Reynolds, R.-A., & Murris, K. (2023). Black blood matters: Moving human and nonhuman bodies from 'question & answer' to a 'pedagogy of questioning'. In K. Murris & V. Bozalek (Eds.), In conversation with Karen Barad: Doings of agential realism (pp. 41–58). Routledge.
Lenz-Taguchi, H. L. (2012). A diffractive and Deleuzian approach to analysing interview data. Feminist Theory, 13(3), 265–281. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700112456001
MacLure, M. (2013). Researching without representation? Language and materiality in post-qualitative methodology. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(6), 658–667. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2013.788755
Malavasi, L., & Zoccatelli, B. (2012). Documentare le progettualità nei servizi e nelle scuole per l'infanzia. Edizioni Junior.
Mantovani, S., & Montoli Perani, R. (2014). Uma profissão a ser inventada: O educador da primeira infância. In A. L. Goulart de Faria & A. De Vita (a cura di), Ler com bebês: Contribuições das pesquisas de Susanna Mantova-ni (pp. 17–60). Autores Associados.
Mazzei, L. A. (2014). Beyond an easy sense: A diffractive analysis. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(6), 742–746. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800414530257
Mbembe, A. (2018). Crítica da razão negra. N-1Edições.
Mezirow, J. (1991). Transformative dimensions of adult learning. Jossey-Bass.
MIUR. (2022). Orientamenti nazionali per i servizi educativi per l’infanzia (D.M. n. 43). https://www.istruzione.it/sistema-integrato-06/allegati/Documento%20base%20Orientamenti%20nazionali%20per%20i%20servizi%20educativi%20per%20l%27infanzia.pdf
Molina, P., Marotta, M., & Bulgarelli, D. (2013). L’osservazione dalla ricerca alla professione: L’uso dell’observation-projet per la formazione al nido. Ricerche di Psicologia, 3, 493–502. https://doi.org/10.3280/RIP2013-003006
Mottana, P. (2010). Eros, Dionisio e altri bambini. Scorribande pedagogiche. Angeli.
Moxnes, A. R., & Osgood, J. (2018). Sticky stories from the classroom: From reflection to diffraction in early childhood teacher education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 19(3), 297-309. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949118766662
Murris, K. (2016). The posthuman child: Educational transformation through philosophy with picturebooks. Routledge.
Murris, K. (2022). Karen Barad as educator: Agential realism and education. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0144-7
Murris, K., & Bozalek, V. (2019a). Diffracting diffractive readings of texts as methodology: Some propositions. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 51(14), 1504–1517. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2019.1570843
Murris, K., & Bozalek, V. (2019b). Diffraction and response-able reading of texts: The relational ontologies of Barad and Deleuze. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 32(7), 872–886. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1609122
Murris, K., & Peers, J. (2022). GoPro(blem)s and possibilities: Keeping the child human of colour in play in an interview. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 23(3), 332–355. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491221117219
Murris, K., & Reynolds, R.-A. (2018). Reggio Emilia inspired philosophical teacher education in the anthropocene: Posthuman child and the family (tree). Journal of Childhood Studies, 43(1), 15-29. https://philpapers.org/rec/MURREI-5
Myers, K. D., Bridges-Rhoads, S., & Cannon, S. O. (2017a). Reflection in constellation: Post theories, subjectivity, and teacher preparation. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 38(4), 326–341. https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2017.1389789
Myers, C. Y., Smith, K. A., & Tesar, M. (2017b). Diffracting mandates for reflective practices in teacher education and development: Multiple readings from Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 38(4), 279–292. https://doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2017.1389788
Osgood, J., & Mohandas, S. (2022). Grappling with the Miseducation of Montessori: A feminist posthuman re-reading of ‘child’ in early childhood contexts. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Journal. https://doi.org/10.1177/14639491221117222
Prado, P. D., & Anselmo, V. S. (2019). Masculinities, femininities and playful dimension: Reflections on gender and teaching in Early Childhood Education. Pro-Posições, 30, e20170137. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-6248-2017-0137
Regina, L. (2006). Consulenza filosofica: Un fare che è pensare. Unicopli.
Rinaldi, C. (2009). In dialogo con Reggio Emilia: Ascoltare, ricercare e apprendere: Discorsi e interventi 1984-2007. Reggio Children.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.
Snaza, N. (2013). Bewildering Education. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 10(1), 38–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2013.783889
Taylor, C. A. (2021). Knowledge matters: Five propositions concerning the reconceptualisation of knowledge in feminist new materialist, posthumanist and postqualitative approaches. In K. Murris (Ed.), Navigating the postqualitative, new materialist and critical posthumanist terrain across disciplines: An introductory guide (pp. 21–41). Routledge.
Voltarelli, M. A., Fernandes, I. S., & Lupis, J. (2022). Entre o proposto e o vivido: Diálogos sobre o currículo e os vícios pedagógicos na educação infantil. Debates em Educação, 14, 283–311. https://www.seer.ufal.br/index.php/debateseducacao/article/view/12584
Wenger, E. (2011). Communities of practice: A brief introduction. Cambridge University Press.
Zonca, P. (2021). Non si può mostrare tutto: Impliciti e “assenze” nella documentazione pedagogica nei servizi per la prima infanzia. MeTis – Mondi Educativi. Temi, Indagini, Suggestioni, 11(1), 259-276. https://doi.org/10.30557/MT00167
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Isabela Fernandes, Giovanna Caetano-Silva, Eduardo Pereira Batista
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
