ABSTRACT
This chapter traces trajectories through which I have found queer theories to be useful and transformative in addressing educational challenges through research. The major sections of this chapter first lay out key epistemological investments of queer theories, and then turn to methodological implications for critical education research and our shared commitments to socially transformative inquiry. I propose that queer theories engender a methodological activism, and I present representative exemplar studies from across a range of research designs to explore implications and possibilities that arise from a generous queering of method. Specifically, these exemplars demonstrate a queer methodological activism in relation to the following selected methodologies: postrepresentational ethnography, autobiography/autoethnography, queer of color analysis, historiography, scavenging methods, quantitative research with large-scale datasets, critical policy analysis, legal analysis, and humanities-oriented educational research. At their heart, queer theories pursue a reworking of cultural production within a moment of what is “not yet.” This is a collective orientation of inquiry towards becoming rather than a teleological priority on documentation, albeit a necessary step.
