ABSTRACT
Education and educational research have always been entangled with intra-acting with material conditions of children, teachers, families, communities, and the planet. In this chapter, the author frames research as a permeable and relational force, consistently shaping and being shaped throughout the various parts of a research design and process. This stance productively destabilizes overly linear conceptualizations of cause, effect, objectivity, and implications while also not shirking responsibility. Research is a project and product of culture, sociopolitics, and material conditions. Educational research has accepted design elements that render some studies more authoritative than others. While one may not like to consider research as being subject to economics and markets, the pursuit of knowledge in racist capitalist settler societies, particularly when coupled with career and livelihood, is intricately tied to market forces. Research is a relational and ontological practice. It is always entangled with specific researchers in specific spaces and with specific outcroppings.
