Methodological shifts and departures in music education research: embracing complexity with diffraction, intra-action, and agentic assemblages

In England, music education policy is deeply rooted in neoliberal ideologies, shaping classroom practice and assessments. This paper presents findings from a four-year funded longitudinal project exploring the impact of musical partnerships on young people at risk of educational exclusion. Through a posthuman lens, the researchers made a methodological shift, acknowledging the agency of non-human elements and physical spaces in musical interactions. Posthumanism offered alternative insights, challenging traditional notions of music education practice and extended human-centric perspectives and school assessment metrics. It expanded our understanding of what it means to be a musician and pedagogue. This paper proposes that posthumanism can challenge existing notions of music education practice while simultaneously moving the discussion of important matters in music education research into new areas of thinking, doing, and being.