Abstract

This chapter introduces the work of Karen Barad. Karen Barad can be categorised as belonging to the new materialist and posthumanist paradigms, although we explain at the front of the chapter why she is perhaps better understood within post-anthropocentric thinking. Like Butler, Barad draws from an eclectic range of scholars and reworks their ideas. Barad’s work is focused on giving matter its due recognition in the meaning-making process. This chapter outlines how Barad has extended Butler’s notion of performativity and infused it with posthumanist thinking. Throughout the chapter, possible links with educational leadership are made, and an extended example of what a Baradian framework could ‘do’ is given.