Virtuality, Solidarity and Possibility: A Response to Paré

ABSTRACT In this response to Dylan Paré's “Queer reorientations in virtual reality: Designing for solidarity in science and technology learning environments,” and as part of the special issue “Centering Affect and Emotion Toward Justice and Dignity in Science Education,” I invite educators to consider “the virtual” that always exists alongside actual reality. Drawing from recent research by Dylan Paré entitled “Reorienting Toward LGBTQ+ Belonging in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics by Feeling and Thinking With a Queer and Nonbinary Person in Virtual Reality,” I argue that things like solidarity, ethics, and justice are not possible without the existence of ‘the virtual’; which is part of the everyday existence of things, making the technology we call “virtual reality” but a tiny example of “the virtual.” Virtuality determines the lines of possibility that a being might take toward ethical becomings and different forms of actualization in the world. Using sociomaterialist philosophy this article encourages educators to explore the virtual for just futures and multispecies flourishing. Using the technology of virtual reality in the way Paré does is one way to open the wide potential of the virtual dimension. While virtual reality research for justice and inclusion might seem like a niche area of computer science, the learning sciences, or technology education, such research helps reintroduce educators and students to the vast aspects of reality that have not yet actualized but are nonetheless real and ever‐present.