Move-ability: A philosophy of education study that develops an alternative understanding of inclusion through posthumanist theories using a diffractive reading

Abstract: This is a study within the field of philosophy of education that seeks to develop an alternative understanding of inclusion within education in light of current changes in society. It discusses a shift within educational research from the field of diversity education towards the field of democratic education, and argues that an idea of separation between subjects implies a tension in the theory calling for this shift. Departing from a posthumanist theoretical framework, an interdisciplinary examination is performed, which suggests that humanist presumptions of separation of matter and meaning lie behind the idea mentioned above. It offers the concept of move-ment, which rather takes departure in the ongoing material-discursive entanglement of matter and meaning in the world’s ongoing process of becoming. The analysis method used in the study is the posthumanist methodology of diffractive reading, whose aim is reading texts through each other in order to develop alternative ideas. The analysis reads the contemporary notion of inclusion within the field of democratic education, and the concept of move-ment, through each other. The analysis results in the developed concept of move-ability, which understands inclusion as an ongoing, relational and performative phenomenon, in a way that more clearly emphasizes movability, transformation and relationality. Finally, the thesis performs a brief discussion of the concept of move-ability, in relation to educational practice. The discussion calls for further engagement within educational research, in order to develop educational approaches in which the concept can come to matter.