Transversalities in education research: Using heterotopias to theorize spaces of crises and deviation

Abstract

<p>A concept used by geographers, architects and literary critics alike (Knight 2017), heterotopias are liminal spaces, portable territories or places that can be conceived of as 'other '. As the earlier quotation illustrates, heterotopias (the mobile space of a boat in this instance) can be imbued with a political function when juxtaposed with other spaces. Research practices, when seen as heterotopic, help us to think otherwise about the world. Foucault (1984) outlines dimensions of heterotopias that can be used as a conceptual framework to support research practice - a particularly helpful heuristic for early career researchers. In this chapter, we offer an application of Foucault's (1986) six heterotopic principles to Education. The extraterritoriality of heterotopias is disruptive in their capacity to unsettle normativity.</p> Drawing from the Foucauldian concept of 'heterotopology', we provide a spatio-temporal approach to be used in both theoretical and conceptual research frameworks. The conceptual dimensions of 'heterotopology' provide a rich scaffold for systematic description and thus enable a mapping, critique and potential disruption of social spaces. We present two heuristics to support early career research. The first lists authors who have written about heterotopias and outlines their fields of Education research. The second details six different heterotopic principles. These can serve as points of departure to recognize and leverage non-normative research possibilities for disruptive readings of Education spaces. The chapter concludes with an account of the authors' Transversalities in Education Research 135 experiences in using collective biography (Davies and Gannon 2006, 2013) as a research approach that creales heterotopic spaces.