Towards Socio-material Research Approaches in Language Education

Abstract

This chapter outlines the socio-material framing of the book that it opens. We situate this volume materially not only in the discipline of applied linguistics and language education, but also in the long tradition of applied language studies at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland and the community there. In doing so, the book builds on the authors’ roots in social constructionist thought and explicates why an orientation towards new materialism may be useful for a consideration of equity issues in language education. Socio-materialism fosters a critical, transformative perspective and encourages an ontological ethical grounding of research, thus providing a starting point for research that implicates (but yet decenters) the role of the researchers. Having conducted the work presented in this book in a community of applied linguists has also made us aware of the material role of the community and its scholars in the process; not just as a vessel of knowledge, but as a part of an assemblage.