Entanglements of new materialist response-ability and intra-actions in the praxis of vegan education

This paper engages with new materialist theories to examine vegan education as an ethical and political response to more-than-human animal exploitation. The objective is to explore how educators implement teaching praxis using the concepts of ethico-onto-epistemology, response-ability, and intra-action, drawn from the works of new materialist scholars Karen Barad and Bronwyn Davies. The methodological approach is theoretical and conceptual analysis, focusing on the praxis of vegan educators. The paper identifies two key gaps: the ethics of new materialism often overlook veganism, and critical animal pedagogies tend to critique existing speciesist educational systems without sufficiently exploring effective pedagogical practices. In response, this study highlights educational methods that resist students’ moral disengagement and educators’ self-censorship – such as non-neutrality, direct interactions with animals, the reunification of discourse and bodily knowledge, creative-relationality, affective dimensions, and love. The results suggest that integrating new materialist concepts with vegan education can support creative, embodied, and relational pedagogies. The conclusion emphasizes that critical animal pedagogy and vegan education, when grounded in response-ability and direct intra-actions with more-than-human animals, offer transformative potential for ethical, anti-speciesist teaching and learning.