The Rhizo-Café initiative constitutes a form of scholarly dialogue and learning within the research team of the Rhizo-Eduscapes project. Each Rhizo-Café cycle is planned on an annual basis, although the selection of articles and texts to be studied may be jointly decided throughout the year, depending on the interests and needs of the group as they emerge through discussion. More specifically, on a monthly basis, all members of the research team meet in a hybrid format, combining face-to-face and online participation, with the aim of systematically studying and collectively engaging with scholarly texts that constitute the theoretical and methodological foundation of the project.

The starting point of the Rhizo-Café initiative is the philosophical concept of the rhizome, as formulated by Deleuze and Guattari, which proposes a non-linear way of understanding knowledge, relationships, and learning, based on connectivity, multiplicity, and continuous transformation (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987). Building on this theoretical foundation, each meeting focuses on different thematic axes, highlighting the productive encounter between philosophy and sociolinguistics, critical applied linguistics, critical discourse analysis, language education, and education more broadly, as well as approaches to qualitative research (e.g., ethnography and linguistic ethnography) and post-qualitative research (e.g., rhizoanalysis and rhizomatic mapping).

During the first Rhizo-Café cycle, organised from June 2025 to June 2026, the research focus of the group centred on texts concerning rhizomatic thinking in sociolinguistic and educational research (Kitsiou, 2024), the rhizomatic mapping of translanguaging spaces (Kitsiou & Karantzola, 2024), as well as the mapping of multiple literacies (Cole & Masny, 2012). We explored topics such as the rhizomatic mapping of adolescence, popular culture, and the construction of the self (Hagood, 2004), as well as rhizoanalysis as a methodological approach in (post-)qualitative research (Masny, 2013; Masny, 2016).

At the same time, particular emphasis was placed on issues relating to the curriculum (Roy, 2003; Gough, 2015), as well as on the concept of the educator as a bricoleur, who co-constructs the learning process through flexible and creative practices (Honan, 2004). Contemporary approaches to translanguaging and semiotic assemblages, exploring the relationship between language, space, and semiotic resources in multilingual environments (Pennycook, 2017), constituted the final topic that engaged us during the first Rhizo-Café cycle.

Following the individual study of the selected texts, each Rhizo-Café meeting is devoted to their discussion in plenary. Members of the research team share their perspectives, raise questions, and bring forward different concerns. This process does not aim at adopting a single interpretation of the texts; rather, it seeks to cultivate a scholarly dialogue that acknowledges the multiplicity of perspectives. It is an assemblage of ideas, interpretations, memories, stories, emotions, quotations and references, conversations with other texts, traditions, and assumptions that the participants bring within their own repertoires.

At the same time, the Rhizo-Café initiative constitutes a space for continuous reflection on the research process itself. Theory is approached as a living tool for thinking, one that is constantly reinterpreted through its dialogue with research practice. Through this process, the monthly meetings contribute not only to a deeper understanding of complex philosophical and methodological concepts, but also to the formation of a community of learning and practice, where knowledge is collectively co-constructed.

First Rhizo-Café Cycle: Books and Articles Read and Discussed

• Cole, D. R., & Masny, D. (2012). Introduction to mapping multiple literacies. In D. R. Cole & D. Masny (Eds.), Mapping multiple literacies: An introduction to Deleuzian literacy studies (pp. 1–14). Continuum International Publishing Group.
• Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press.
• Gough, N. (2015). Deleuze and Guattari and curriculum. In M. A. Peters (Ed.), Encyclopedia of educational philosophy and theory (pp. 1–6). Springer.
• Hagood, M. C. (2004). A rhizomatic cartography of adolescents popular culture and constructions of self. In K. M.Leander & M Sheehy (Eds.), Spatializing Literacy Research and Practice ( 143–160) New York: Peter Lang.
• Honan, E. (2004). Teachers as bricoleurs: Producing plausible readings of curriculum documents. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 3(2), 99–112.
• Κίτσιου, Ρ. (2024). Αξιοποιώντας το «ρίζωμα» στην κοινωνιογλωσσολογική και την εκπαιδευτική έρευνα. Παιδαγωγικά Ρεύματα στο Αιγαίο, 13(1). Διαθέσιμο σε: https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/revmata/article/view/37703
• Κίτσιου, Ρ. & Καραντζόλα. E. (2024). Μια ριζωματική χαρτογραφία του διαγλωσσικού χώρου: Η περίπτωση μιας γίγνεσθαι-τάξη γλωσσικού γραμματισμού αραβόφωνων ασυνόδευτων ανήλικων προσφύγων. Σε Ε. Ιωαννίδου & Στ. Τσιπλάκου (Επιμ.), Proceedings of the 6^th International Conference ‘Crossroads of Languages and Cultures’ (CLC6) Plurilingualism, Variation, Spaces of Literacy (2-4 September 2021) (σσ. 243-257). Open University of Cyprus.
• Masny, D. (2016). Problematizing qualitative research: Reading a data assemblage with rhizoanalysis. Qualitative Inquiry, 22(8), 666–675.
• Masny, D. (2013). Rhizoanalytic pathways in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 19(5), 339–348.
• Pennycook, A. (2017). Translanguaging and semiotic assemblages. International Journal of Multilingualism, 14(3), 269–282.
• Roy, K. (2003). Teachers in nomadic spaces: Deleuze and curriculum. Peter Lang.