Assessing the Mess: Challenges to Assemblage Theory and Teacher Education
Source: International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Volume 26, Issue 10, 2013, pages 1293-1308.
This article examines the Deleuzian concept of ‘assemblage’ in educational research in the context of Teacher Education (TE) for the ‘continuing education’ or ‘Lifelong Learning’ sector.
The author argues that the concept of assemblage recognises developmental practices in distinctive ways and that it challenges the centripetal views implied by other models’ elision of more specific types of convergence, each of which is analysed.
Drawing on Deleuze’s creative approach to analysis, the article draws a portrait of practice which identifies problems and successes in specific cases of TE with wider applicability.
The author argues that a situated and dynamic epistemological model is offered by assemblage theory which recognises not just the spatial but also the temporal and political complexities of actual practice.