Rhizoanalysis of Sociomaterial Entanglements in Teacher Interviews

Abstract

This chapter explores how the entangled relationship between the material and social in teachers’ perceptions of change can be empirically investigated. More specifically, the chapter adopts a DeleuzoGuattarian rhizoanalytic assemblage approach and the notion of becoming to capture the dynamic and fluid nature of social and material affects. The study re-analyses three teacher interviews from data sets originally collected for different research purposes but with the theme of change relevant in each interview. The findings show that rhizomatic analysis and approaching interviews as assemblages can yield important insights about material realities. For example, they indicate how teachers’ ways of becoming depend on complex and unpredictable intra-actions of social and material reality and how different aspects of materiality may constrain or come into conflict with each other and have agency. The chapter concludes by discussing the methodological implications of the essentially non-hierarchical rhizoanalytic approach.