Van Dermijnsbrugge, Elke Maria Francoise; (2023) Exploring Futures Forming Practices for Education Research: Utopia as Method. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

We are confronted with global crises such as rising nationalisms, environmental destruction and increasing global inequalities. The dominant evidence-based discourse in education does not seem to be offering adequate responses to these crises. It fails to address matters of human flourishing and to create opportunities for alternative (educational) futures. This thesis redresses this gap by offering two specific crisis responses: exploring a speculative and utopian method for education research; and rethinking how curriculum in schools can be approached as a lived practice concerned with human flourishing. I explore how utopia as a method, based on the work of sociologist Ruth Levitas, can guide the practices of education researchers in going beyond critical scholarship through engaging in ontological inquiry and direct action. I supplement utopia as method by the novel practice of ‘Punk Ethnography’, a collaborative practice that emerged from my two-year collaborative case study with one secondary international school in Hong Kong. Punk Ethnography applies elements of the punk ethos and anarchist philosophy, and makes use of ethnographic strategies to set up imaginative action-oriented initiatives. Utopia as method is put to work as the analytical framework for the case study, focused on the school-based curricular approach called ‘Human Technologies’. This practice is evaluated against four considerations of curriculum as a lived practice that is concerned with human flourishing and the good society. My research suggests that approaches such as utopia as method and Punk Ethnography that foreground small-scale, action-oriented and creative 6 practices, can activate alternative futures in the present. This research contributes to the diversification of education research practices and approaches to curriculum in schools that go beyond the dominant evidence-based discourse, putting human flourishing and responsible citizenship at the centre. It suggests that crises can become opportunities for constructing alternative futures that contribute to social change.

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