Players chatter and dice clatter: exploring sonic power relations in posthuman game-based learning ecologies

ABSTRACT Responding to both recent interest in sound within qualitative education research and sound studies literature that conceptualizes sound as a posthuman technology, we use this paper to explore the following research questions: How does sound both enact and unveil posthuman learning ecologies? And how can education scholars engage sound within posthuman research? Through a posthuman framework, we position noise as an analytical tool for exploring and unveiling more-than-human relations. We then draw parallels between posthuman qualitative research into sound (via noise) and the ideological foundation of experimental music, a musical tradition deeply invested in working with sound as an agentic actor. Within this alignment, we propose using graphic scores to transcribe sonic data without reinscribing humanist research aims. To illustrate, we provide a micro-analysis of preservice teachers engaged in a role-playing game activity and uncover the ways sound asserts its agency within learning ecologies.