Performing Difference : A study about knowledge in motion

This study focuses on how an open-ended process of learning can affect education as well as our relationship with knowledge production. Nearing the classroom as a site of important moments this work tries to exemplify what a shift from an epistemic to an ontological pedagogy can mean. The two questions at issue are, What takes place in learning processes when we center conceptual creativity? and, What can the open-ended mean for esthetic methods within educational science? The fieldwork is based in a Swedish elementary school where a group of 10-year olds take on the task of designing objects and performing them for a dinner that is sort of out of the ordinary. An imaginary menu of green beets in lava sauce, roasted earth cakes with stardust and sweet flames with lemon twigs works as an inlet for the participants creative different processes. Using an assemblage of methods and theories this study aims to research how pedagogy can become a site that centers conceptual creativity. Artistic research, design and craft offers a closeness to what Karen Barad calls ”matter that matters”. And for the pedagogical this means a closeness to material culture and how things play a part in the making of our society. It´s called ”Performing difference” because it looks at what the production of differences in relation to knowledge and creativity can mean for pedagogy. The conclusion is partly an understanding of what this setting asks from an educational context and of what happens when we introduce and work with pedagogy from a performative angle. What this study comes to is that a pedagogy that blends theory with practice by turning to new-materialism presents exciting possibilities for education. When the un-disputable is made subject to question and open to interpretation knowledge becomes something we are allowed to enact, engage and provoke. In conclusion the open-ended can mean many things for an educational discourse but I believe one thing is clear - it presents inlets for creativity and our understanding of culture and society