Exploring ‘thing-power’ and the ‘spectre of fear’ on schooling subjectivities: A critical posthuman analysis of LGBT silencing

Abstract

This chapter experiments with critical posthumanist theory to explore the silencing and invisibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) diversities in school education. Drawing on the work of Barad, Bennett, and Braidotti, we deploy concepts such as ‘intra-action’, ‘thing-power’, and ‘dark matter’ to tentatively delve into the ways in which both the tangible and intangible entangle and enjoin human subjectivities in the classroom and in the education milieu more broadly. We explore how these theorisations can be used to explicate, what we coin, the ‘spectre of fear’ surrounding LGBT-inclusivity in the K-12 classroom. We endeavour to demonstrate the interplays, interconnections and collisions between the human and nonhuman and to understand the ways in which these entanglements have material effect. Importantly, we consider that the recognition of these relational and intertwined subjectivities that transcend the human subject can produce understandings and knowledges that advocate for a more equitable, harmonious, and socially sustainable planet.