Indexing the multiple : an autobiographic account of education through the lens of Deleuze and Guattari

This Multiple Literacies Theory chapter deals with two aspects of educational research and writing that are informed by the philosophy of Gilles De leuze & Felix Guattari ( 1984, 1987): - The ways in which autobiography may be theorized in order to understand educational practice. - The development of a matrix whereby qualitative educational multiplicities may be indexed and presented. This writing theorizes autobiographic experiences of relief teaching in inner city schools in the UK. Using the approach of Deleuze & Guattari prioritizes the qualitatively multiple aspects of experience and an analysis of the corresponding power relationships that are uncovered in the differentiation of events. Deleuze took on board the arguments of Bergson (1975) to develop his notion of the qualitative unconscious - and this construction had the aim of showing how the results of rational reflection may be synthesized and applied in creative representation to expand empirical inquiry to include the imaginary. Essential to this philosophical move is the statement that the place where the index maps of the multiple come from alters their alignment and comprehension and this demonstrates the type of perpsectivism that De leuze & Guattari have derived from Nietzsche (1956, 1961,1968) and that has been included in feminist educational research paradigms (St.Pierre & Pillow, 2000).