Tuning into rebellious matter: affective literacies as more-than-human sonic bodies

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this article is to explore the sonic vibrations, infectious rhythms, and alternative frequencies that are often unheard and overlooked within mainstream educational spaces–that is, perceptually coded out of legibility by those who read/see/feel/hear the world through “whiteness.” Design/methodology/approach “Plugging into” (Jackson and Mazzei, 2012) posthuman theories of affect (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987; Henriques, 2010) and assemblage (Weheliye, 2014), the author argues that “literate bodies,” along with all forms of matter, continually vibrate, move, swell and rebel (Deleuze, 1990)–creating momentum that is often difficult not to get tangled up in. Findings This article maps out how a specific sociohistorical concept of sound works to affectively orient bodies and impact student becomings, namely, by producing students as un/successful readers and in/human subjects. At the same time, the author attends to the subtle ways that first graders rebelliously move(d) with alternative sonic frequencies to resist/disrupt mandated literacy curricula and white, patriarchal ways of knowing, being and doing. Originality/value This article highlights the political nature of sound and how, within mainstream educational spaces, certain sonic frequencies become coded out of white supremacist models for knowledge transmission, which re/produce racialized (gendered, classist, etc.) habits and practices of listening/hearing. Literacy educators are invited to “(re)hear” the social in more just ways (James, 2020) by sensing the affects and effects of more-than-human “sonic bodies” (Henriques, 2011), which redirect us to alternative rhythms, rationalities, habits and practices that challenge normative conceptions of what counts as literacy and who counts as successfully literate.

Beyond transparency: more‐than‐human insights into the emergence of young children's language

“…This understanding of young children's vocalisations as joining in with a place or a soundscape coheres with other research that has demonstrated the influence of place on children's talk (Arculus and MacRae, 2020; Dean, 2021; Hackett et al, 2021; Heath, 1983; Richardson and Murray, 2017) and the importance of bodies and movement for young children's meaning making (Daniels, 2016; Dernikos, 2020; Flewitt, 2005; Hackett, 2014; Powell and Somerville, 2018; Thiel, 2015). A more‐than‐human understanding of young children's talk extends this work by rethinking the tendency to separate out place from body and see the one acting on or influencing the other.…”

“…Posthuman and post-qualitative research in recent years have acted as gathering points for a growing critique of the assumption that 'human' is a fixed and unproblematic category (Braidotti, 2013) and a related interest in what kinds of knowledge qualitative research methods privilege or surface (MacLure, 2013). Implications for educational research include the need to consider young people beyond the confines of the bounded individual, seeing instead how any one child is deeply inter-connected not just to other humans but to the more-than-human context in which they are learning or acting (Dernikos et al, 2020;Taylor and Hughes, 2016). Human bodies themselves are not bounded; host to multiple other beings that influence our well-being and thought processes, the human body, in this sense, is itself more-than-human (Alaimo, 2010).…”

Vibrancy and stillness in talking school discourse: examining embodied talk in a primary classroom

“…Dyson, 2003, 2008; Henning, 2019; Kontovourki & Siegel, 2022). Focusing particularly on children's talk and noise in an early primary classroom, Dernikos (2020) suggested that the regulation of sounds cites hegemonic, raced and classed discourses but is never fixed. As she pointed out, in mainstream educational spaces, certain sounds (noises coming from outside the classroom, unsanctioned student talk, out‐of‐turn talking) were coded out or policed, at the same time that it was also possible for children to resist such policing and regulation.…”

“…To emphasise this possibility of the concurrent emergence, hence vibrancy, and boundedness, hence stillness, of literacy learning, researchers have suggested that forces affectively vibrate together (Dernikos, 2020); that intra‐active encounters of human and nonhuman bodies are vibrant and in motion (Wargo, 2018); that one's own body may be seen as vibrant matter (Thiel, 2016). Across these studies, action is dispersed in the entanglements of material entities, including sound, objects, and humans, all of which are capable of producing effects on one another, thus shaping literacies and literate learners.…”

“…Thinking of children's talk as concurrently generated by and generative of constrictions and possibilities is also useful for professional teachers who are invested in critical reflection and engagement. As Dernikos (2020) suggests, a concurrent consideration of stillness and vibrancy helps educators and researchers to attune themselves to possibilities different from ones privileged in official curricula and established classroom practice. Similarly, Rena's case suggests that we might need to listen to voices, noises and bodies differently, so that breaking the rules might actually be seen as opportunity to disrupt those and redefine the doing of literacy in everyday classrooms.…”