Reading, Contingency, Diversity, and the Creative Advance of Research

Reading, as a conversation with authors, is an inescapable necessity for any research. But it takes on a special meaning in educational and social research because the relationships with what we read mostly give meaning and foundation to the research we carry out. In this field, some read to legitimise the decisions they make through authoritative references; some take reading as part of the research process and enter into conversation with authors who enable them to think about and problematise what they are researching; there are those who, following in the wake of Deleuze and Guattari, take reading as part of an idea of research that aims to move and create concepts. There are also those who read to establish relationships based on what they have read and expand their own experience of reading and add layers to phenomena (such as drawing in art education, evaluation in education) that attract their attention.

The latter is the case of Dennis Atkinson, for whom his books and articles are a place to share how he reads the authors that catch his attention, generate knowledge from the reading experience and establish connections with situations in education that are part of his concerns.

In education, Atkinson’s reading experience has made him, at least for those who have convened this seminar, a reference point for how to read and move what he reads. Thinking and researching from Atkinson’s ways of reading invites us to enter a conversation with authors who nourish us with concepts that problematise research experience.

For all these reasons, we have invited Dennis Atkison to give us a seminar on his experience of reading authors in the field of philosophy as part of the research process. To this end, we have planned three sessions with the following threads:

• April 23. Dialoguing about the reading experience of Dennis Atkinson and seminar participants as part of the research process.
• April 24. Reading Alfred North Whitehead from Atkinson’s book Art, Disobedience, and Ethics (2018) (chapter Whitehead’s Adventure) to examine processes of learning and pedagogical work. Access from UB’s digital Library
• April 25. The experience of seminar participants’ reading of “Pedagogies of Taking Care: Problematics of a Work-to-be-Made” by Dennis Atkinson (2022). Access at: https://cutt.ly/AwR4LkoT

A complementary reading to prepare the seminar:

Adams St. Pierre, Elizabeth & Kuecker, Elliott (06 Oct 2023). Reading: the long preparation for inquiry, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2023.2264244.