CLASSROOM ASSEMBLAGE: THE VIBRANT SETTING OF THE SCHOOLING PROCESS

This paper's purpose is to reflect upon the complexity of the classroom environment regarded as an assemblage. The hypothesis is that all the components of the assemblage are equally vital, although some components vibrate more than others. The theory of vitalism of Driesch (1914) and the vital materialism of Bennett (2010a, 2010b) are used as the theoretical tools for analysis. Assemblage ethnography (Youdell, 2015; Youdell & McGimpsey, 2015) is the methodology of data collection. A multiple case study was developed in three different schools in the United Kingdom: one primary, one secondary and one post-secondary. The results suggest that the teacher and students are the components that most influence the classroom assemblage composition, decomposition and recomposition orienting the flows of matter-energy once they are change-creating agents.