Artificial Intelligence as an opportunity or a curriculum trajectory in the 21st century? Towards embracing unfamiliar discourses
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38140/ijer-2024.vol6.s1.02Keywords:
Artificial Intellgence, curriculum, teacher education, ethics, embracing changeAbstract
This theoretical paper contributes to the ongoing debate on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in relation to curriculum and implementation in post-colonial South Africa. We contend that AI, as perceived, conceived, and implemented within the curriculum space, presents an ambivalent terrain marked by fear, uncertainty, and anxiety among stakeholders, as its presence has interfered with the everyday work of educational practitioners. Cognizant of this problem, we locate our theorisation within the framework of Sustainable Learning Environments and address two questions: (1) What are the opportunities of AI in relation to the curriculum in post-colonial South Africa? (2) What challenges are faced in the implementation of AI, especially in rural contexts where technological opportunities are not equivalent to those in urban areas? In this paper, we highlight that while AI tools like ChatGPT may appear daunting for integration into teaching and learning—potentially undermining educators' authority and raising ethical concerns—there is an urgent need to rethink and restructure teacher education. This restructuring should align with the evolving demands of an AI-enhanced curriculum and address the shifting expectations in educational contexts.
References
Akgun, S., & Greenhow, C. (2022). Artificial intelligence in education: Addressing ethical challenges in K-12 settings. AI and Ethics, 2(3), 431– 440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-021-00096-7
Alam, A. (2021). Possibilities and apprehensions in the landscape of artificial intelligence in education. In International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Computing Applications (ICCICA). Nagpur, India, 2021 (pp. 1-8). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCICA52458.2021.9697272
Badet, J. (2021). AI, automation and new jobs. Open Journal of Business and Management, 9(5), 2452-2463
Baker, T., Smith, L., & Anissa, N. (2019). Educ-AI-tion rebooted? Exploring the future of artificial intelligence in schools and colleges. NESTA.
Dishon, G. (2017). New data, old tensions: Big data, personalised learning, and the challenges of progressive education. Theory and Research in Education.
Dube, B. (2020). Rural online learning in the context of COVID-19 in South Africa: Evoking an inclusive education approach. Multidisciplinary Journal of Educational Research, 10(2), 135–157. https://doi.org/10.17583/remie.2020.5607
Gherhes, V. (2018). Why are we afraid of artificial intelligence (AI)? Sciendo 11(17), 6-15.
Colchester, K., Hagras, H., Alghazzawi, D., & Aldabbagh, G. (2017). A Survey of Artificial Intelligence Techniques Employed for Adaptive Educational Systems within E-Learning Platforms. Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Soft Computing Research, 7 (1). pp. 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1515/jaiscr-2017-0004
Grassini, S. (2023). Development and validation of the AI Attitude Scale (AIAS-4): a brief measure of general attitude toward artificial intelligence. Fronters of Psychology. 14, 1191628. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1191628
Gravel, J., D’Amours-Gravel, M., & Osmanlliu, E. (2023). Learning to fake it: limited responses and fabricated references provided by ChatGPT for medical questions. Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Digital Health, 1(3), 226-234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcpdig.2023.05.004
Harwell, D., & Tiku, N. (2023). GPT-4 has arrived. It will blow ChatGPT out of the water. The Washington Post.
Heinrich, T., & Witko, C. (2021). Technology?Induced Job Loss and the Prioritisation of Economic Problems in the Mass Public. Review of Policy Research, 38(2), 164-179. https://doi.org/10.1111/ropr.12418
Huang, J., Saleh, S., & Liu, Y. (2021). A Review on Artificial Intelligence in Education. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary, 10(3), 206-217.
Johnson, D. G., & Verdicchio, M. (2017). AI anxiety. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 68(9), 2267-2270. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23867
Kamalov, F., Santandreu Calonge, D., & Gurrib, I. (2023). New era of artificial intelligence in education: Towards a sustainable multifaceted revolution. Sustainability, 15(16), 12451.https://doi.org/10.3390/su151612451
Kim, Y., Soyata, T., & Behnagh, R. F. (2018). Towards emotionally aware AI smart classroom: Current issues and directions for engineering and education. Ieee Access, 6, 5308–5331. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2791861
Le Blanc, D. (2015). Towards integration at last? The sustainable development goals as a network of targets. Sustainable Development, 23(3), 176–187. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1582
Mahlomaholo, S. M. (2012). Towards sustainable empowering learning environments: Unmasking apartheid legacies through scholarship of engagement. South African Journal of Higher Education, 24(3), 287–301. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC37622
Mahlomaholo, S. G. (2012). Creating sustainable learning environments at a school through validation of its community cultural wealth. International Journal of Arts and Science, 5(3), 429–440.
Mahlomaholo, S. R., &Mahlomaholo, S. G. (2022). The Assessment in Sustainable Remote Teaching and Learning During Emergency Situations. Journal of Culture and Values in Education, 5(2), 16–31. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcve.2022.17
Mahlomaholo, S., Nkoane, M., & Ambrosio, J. (2013). Sustainable learning environments and social justice comment. TD: The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa, 9(3), V-XIII.
Mishra, P., & Heath, M.K. (2024). The (Neil) Postman Always Rings Twice: 5 questions on AI and education. In M. Searson, E. Langran, & J. Trumble (Eds.), Exploring new horizons: Generative artificial intelligence and teacher education. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Nguyen, A., Ngo, H. N., Hong, Y., Dang, B., & Nguyen, B. P. T. (2023). Ethical principles for artificial intelligence in education. Education and Information Technologies, 28(4), 4221-4241. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11316-w
Qiu, Y. (2020). Education informationisation. In Proceedings of the 2020 6th International Conference on Education and Training Technologies (pp. 40–43). ACM.
Rinehart, W and Edwards, A. (2019). Understanding job loss predictions from artificial intelligence. https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/understanding-job-loss-predictions-from-artificial-intelligence/
Roll, I., & Wylie, R. (2016). Evolution and revolution in artificial intelligence in education. International journal of artificial intelligence in education, 26, 582-599. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-016-0110-3
Roose, K. (2023). Don’t ban ChatGPT in schools: Teach with it. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/technology/chatgpt-schools-teachers.html
Sallam, M. (2023, March). ChatGPT utility in healthcare education, research, and practice: systematic review on the promising perspectives and valid concerns. In Healthcare (Vol. 11, No. 6, p. 887). MDPI. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11060887
Tiwari, R. (2023). The Impact of AI and Machine Learning on Job Displacement and Employment Opportunities. International Journal of Scientific Research in Engineering and Management, 7(1), 1–8.
Trust, T., Maloy, R. W., & Nikmatullah, N. (2024). Integrating AI in teacher education using the teacher educator technology competencies. In M. Searson, E. Langran, & J. Trumble (Eds.), Exploring new horizons: Generative artificial intelligence and teacher education. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
VanLehn, K. (2011). The relative effectiveness of human tutoring, intelligent tutoring systems, and other tutoring systems. Educational Psychologist, 46(4), 197–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2011.611369
World Economic Forum. (2024). Shaping the future of learning: The role of AI in education 4.0. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Shaping_the_Future_of_Learning_2024.pdf
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Copyright (c) 2024 Bekithemba Dube, Wendy Setlalentoa
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
