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2014 Australian Association for Research in Education Presidential Address

Educational research and the tree of knowledge in a post human digital age

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Abstract

The 2014, 41st Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) presidential address is both inspired and guided by the discursive genres of presidential addresses and the role of the president in a member association such as AARE. In the address, typically the president speaks to the members on an issue or issues that are to shape or conclude their term of office, as it is in my case. Like many of the 40 AARE presidents who have gone before me, I will embed some things that are professional, personal and political—not in the interests of advancing my research agenda, but to add “to the weave and pattern of the association’s history” (Reid 2010, p. v). Threads of my research since completing my PhD in 2000 will appear to support the broad argument. Also, I will draw on the outcomes of the 2014 Australian Research Council Discovery round (see Australian Research Council: ARC archives 2016) to encapsulate my key argument that educational research and its (ex)changes are being reshaped: in a post human digital age, the tree of knowledge is mutating. To make my argument, I will review how the thinking and doing of educational research mid-way through the second decade of the twenty-first century is constructed and ask what research endeavours might be created to make the best possible worlds for our member community and the aspirations of the association.

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Notes

  1. I have elected to capitalise the two words Big Data (BD) to convey that there is much shouting and shouting out about these two words in the academy and the everyday.

  2. I would like to acknowledge the support of the AARE SIG convenors, the executive, past presidents, members and non-member conference attendees for their contribution to my term of office during 2013–2014. Reflections on my term of office highlight generosity, passion and productivity as hallmarks of the AARE community.

  3. See also Cope and Kalantzis (2015), Loukissas (2016), Madsen and Stenheim (2016) and Williamson (2016).

  4. In 2014 alone there were presentation listings that run to 17 A4 pages available for review on the ARC website, see http://archive.arc.gov.au/file-search/Media_Centre?level_1=Media%20Centre&level_2=Presentations&level_3=2014&sort=asc&order=Document%20Name)

  5. Type the author name Manuel Lima and The Book of Trees (2014) into your search engine and highlight images to view a snapshot of the book and the numerous reviews of the work which are detailed on blog sites.

  6. The study was funded by an Australian Research Council Grant in partnership with the Victorian Department of Education and Training (DET), the non-for-profit foundation Together for Humanity (TFH), the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) and Pukunui Technology (ARCLP 120200319).

  7. Haraway (1991) constructs the noisy little analytical machine as something that“... works almost like the dichotomous systems of European Renaissance rhetoricians, such as Peter Rasmus to persuade, teach and taxonomize simultaneously by means of analytical technology that palpably makes it objects simultaneously with bisecting them…Noting this tradition does not invalidate its use; it locates its use and insists on partiality and accountability. The difference is important. Binaries, rather suspect for feminists I know can turn out to be nice little tools from time to time” (Haraway 1991, p. 111).

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Acknowledgments

Taking an embodied address to a written paper requires writing that is recrafted and reviewed. I would like to acknowledge the contribution of two outstanding scholars and colleagues: Dr Radhika Gorur, Senior Lecturer at Deakin University, and Professor Pat Thompson, Convenor of the Centre for Research in Arts, Creativity and Literacy (CRACL) from the University of Nottingham, who provided clear and assiduous advice on the ‘how to’ and revision of this text. Associate Professor Linda Graham as Editor of Australian Educational Researcher was patient and persistent in ensuring that I got the paper into press and added to the AARE record.

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  1. Deakin University, Melbourne Campus at Burwood, Burwood, VIC, 3125, Australia

    Julianne Moss

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Correspondence to Julianne Moss.

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Moss, J. 2014 Australian Association for Research in Education Presidential Address. Aust. Educ. Res. 43, 505–525 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-016-0215-6

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