“Once you exceed the threshold, something new happens” (Youngblood & Mazzei, 2012, p. 138). In this presentation, I introduce a diffractive methodology to which uncertainty is inherent and discuss how it can contribute to organisational learning in organisational education research. More specifically, I ask how one can use diffraction to explore organisational education. Diffraction signifies waves that overlap to “break apart in different directions” (Barad 2007, p.168 in Foster & Webb, 2023). It helps to ‘spread our thoughts and questions in unpredictable patterns of waves and intensities’ (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012, p. 138) for exploring organisational learning in times of uncertainty. A diffractive methodology then means diffracting data analysis and interpretation in ‘refracting’ different theorists. When putting into conversation Spivak and Foucault, the data analysis becomes more multi-faceted, maybe also more insecure. Lincoln et al. (2011, p. 100) plead for the 'great potential for interweaving of viewpoints, for the incorporation of multiple perspectives, and borrowing, or bricolage' in combining different paradigms to make space for 'multivocality, contested meanings, paradigmatic controversies, and new textual forms’ (Lincoln, Lynham and Guba, 2011, p. 125). As their quote above indicates, Youngblood & Mazzei (2012) understand their engagement with data from various theorists’ perspectives as the ‘threshold’ which lets new things emerge. I will exemplify this ‘new’ in the context of a current research project on gender and sustainability within higher education in which I understand sustainability as a response to uncertainty in relation to climate change for organisational learning (cf. also Webb & Foster, 2023). In these uncertain times, I draw on and contrast with each other Foucault and Spivak to analyse, shed light and diffract data from interviews with higher education professionals and website analysis. In embracing uncertainty through a diffractive methodology, putting into conversation Spivak and Foucault on gender and sustainability within higher education, this presentation contributes to a methodological discussion on how diffraction in organisational education research can be made fruitful for organisational learning as a different form of inquiry, which is continually developing, unpredictable and allows for looking at the phenomena from various angles.

References: Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press. Bozalek, V. and Zembylas, M. (2017) ‘Diffraction or reflection? Sketching the contours of two methodologies in educational research’, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 30(2), pp. 111–127. doi: 10.1080/09518398.2016.1201166. Lincoln, Y. S., Lynham, S. A. and Guba, E. G. (2011) ‘Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences’, in Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. 4th ed. CA: Sage, pp. 97–127. St. Pierre, E. A. (2011) ‘Post Qualitative Research. The critique and the coming after.’, in Lincoln, N. K. and Denzin, Y. S. (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. 4th ed. CA: Sage, pp. 611–626. Webb, R and Foster, K. (2023) Championing a not knowing Transformative Pedagogy and Practice: re-envisioning the role of the ECEC Practitioner, in C. Solvason and R. Webb (Eds)., Exploring and Celebrating the Early Childhood Practitioner: An Interrogation of Pedagogy, Professionalism and Practice. New York, Routledge. Youngblood, J. A. and Mazzei, L. A. (2012) Thinking with theory in qualitative research: Viewing data across multiple perspectives. New York, NY: Routledge 2012.