Critical Dialogue Research Articles

The implications of generative AI for creative composition in higher education and initial teacher education

This position paper explores the impact of generative AI on creativity and creative production in higher education, with focus also on initial teacher education. Creative outputs are an essential part of the business of higher education across different disciplinary areas, along with pedagogical and assessment practices matched to these outputs. However, the advent of generative AI has sparked a reconsideration of how we think about creativity, creative output, and the hybridity of relationships between generative AI and humans in creative endeavours. This emergent technology also has significant implications for teacher education and for the develop of new teachers who need confidence with using AI in learning contexts. We suggest that new thinking and critical dialogue are essential in developing educational futures in which generative AI is understood for its affordances, limitations, and dangers.

From web forms to chatbots: The roles of consistency and reciprocity for user information disclosure

AbstractInteractive decision aids (IDAs) on websites often require users to disclose relevant information (e.g., preferences, contact information) to help users in making decisions (e.g., product choice). With technological advances in IDAs, websites increasingly switch from static, non‐conversational IDAs (e.g., web forms) to conversational ones (e.g., chatbots) to boost user information disclosure that nurtures the websites' economic viability. While this novel form of IDAs is already widely employed in practice, information systems research has yet to examine the defining dialogue design features of conversational IDAs and their effects on eliciting user information. Drawing on persuasion theory and particularly on consistency and reciprocity as influence techniques, we develop a research model around two crucial dialogue design features of conversational IDAs. Specifically, we investigate the distinct and joint effects of conversational style (i.e., absence vs. presence of a conversational presentation of requests) and reciprocation triggers (i.e., absence vs. presence of reciprocity‐inducing information) on user information disclosure (i.e., email addresses). By combining the complementary properties of a randomised field experiment (N = 386) and a follow‐up online experiment (N = 182), we empirically provide evidence in support of the distinct and joint effects of conversational style and reciprocation triggers of IDAs on user information disclosure. Moreover, we demonstrate that these dialogue design features have indirect effects on information disclosure via perceptions of social presence and privacy concerns. Thus, our paper provides theoretical and practical insights into whether, how, and why critical IDA dialogue design features can better elicit user information for website services.

Trembling: The winds and I

This is a text based on a keynote address that I gave at the IDIERI, 2022 conference in Warwick. The theme of IDIERI, 2022 was “Navigating mess and complexity in uncertain times.” It is particularly relevant to this issue because the project described in this keynote emerges from, and is embedded in, our on-going work at Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) and addresses Sustainable Development Goals 1, 4, 5, 10 and 13. The project is about teenage girls in Lucknow, India. It includes critical dialogues, poetry and drama, and culminates in a collectively curated script and performance. As girls in India, it reveals their fears and concerns about their current lives and their view of their future . Their embodied voices and poems show us what their lives are like and how they feel about the uncertainties shaped by their experience. Strict patriarchal social norms leave them feeling insecure, unsafe and unfree at home and in their immediate environment. It emerged that while they have a caring, connected relationship with nature, the climate crisis seems too distant. Their concerns about securing their present lives are more immediate.

Guilty at Law: Analysing Simon Chimbetu’s and Paul Matavire’s Memoirs from Prison

A prison is limiting, dehumanising, isolating, stressful and dismembering. Such experiences are expressed through different sites of expression including but not limited to novels, poetry, autobiographies and even music. Zimbabwean musicians Simon Chimbetu and Paul Matavire are some of the artists who served jail terms having been found guilty at law and then decided to recount their experiences through music. Against that background, this article critically engages Simon Chimbetu’s and Paul Matavire’s music within the context of their attitude towards prison. Emerging in the exegesis of the songs is that in terms of attitude, Simon Chimbetu largely laments the horrendous experiences that involve entrapment, loss and angst, while Matavire deliberately mocks the prison itself to the extent that he is not as disillusioned as Chimbetu. He adopts an approach that helps him regain strength, confidence and agency in the midst of incarceration. It is the vision(s) of the artists that is of keen interest in this critical dialogue. It is apparent in Chimbetu’s lyricism that a prison is a dehumanising and depersonalising entity that generates pain, envy, grief, denial and in turn dislocates, disorients and decentres, while Matavire tends to mock his handlers in a subtle but powerful manner. He transcends victimhood and adopts a perspective in which the prison is viewed as a site of rehabilitation, reformation and human factor development. Our analysis is guided and oriented by the reformative theory of criminal justice.

How Should the Dragon King Memorialize the Jade Emperor? Margins of Political Thought in Late Ming China

A vast array of “vernacular” novels from late imperial and modern China feature well-edited official documents such as decrees, edicts, and memorials. The present study argues that these long-overlooked official documents offer unique access to creative political ideas that would otherwise be inaccessible to us. Using Xiyou ji 西遊記 (The Journey to the West) as a case study, this article initiates a critical dialogue between histories of documents, print culture, knowledge dissemination, vernacular novels, and political thought. The study begins with an exposition of the Ming regulations governing the formatting and representation of official documents. Tracing how the civil service examinations familiarized the reading public with documentary formatting, it then details how anonymous producers of various editions of the novel problematized the emperor's two bodies on documentary margins. It concludes by providing examples from Manchu manuscripts and Lu Xun's novels, suggesting that the methods explored here may be applied to further studies beyond Sinitic texts and the late imperial period.

라캉과 바디우

This article attempts to shed light upon the relationship between Jacques Lacan and Alain Badiou from the perspective of philosophy and antiphilosophy. According to Badiou, the history of Western thought is constituted by the ceaseless dialogue between philosophy and antiphilosophy. It is well-known that Badiou elaborated on his philosophy through the critical dialogue with Lacanian psychoanalysis. In Lacan: Anti-Philosophy 3, Badiou addresses Lacan through the lens of antiphilosophy. According to Badiou, Lacanian antiphilosophy deposes the authority of philosophical truth, discloses the philosophical operation, and presents his analytic act against the philosophical operation. However, Lacan himself used the term “antiphilosophy” only twice in his entire intellectual itinerary. Moreover, he did not leave any systematic discussion about his antiphilosophy. How can one address Lacan’s position regarding philosophy and antiphilosophy, then? This article engages with this question. The author first reviews the main points of Lacanian antiphilosophy as presented by Badiou, classifies Lacan’s extensive and inconsistent comments on philosophy, and shows how Lacan and Badiou have an interlaced relationship, which cannot be reduced to the simple antagonism “philosophy vs. antiphilosophy.” This will not only serve as a critical reading of the Badiouian version of Lacanian antiphilosophy but also contribute to the exploration of the relationship between Lacan and Badiou, philosophy and antiphilosophy.

Developing Leaders of Character for Responsible Artificial Intelligence

Who is responsible for Responsible AI (RAI)? As the Department of Defense (DoD) invests in AI workforce education, this question serves as starting point for an argument that effective training for military RAI demands focused character development for officers. This essay makes that case in three parts. First, while norms around responsibility and AI are likely to evolve, there remains long-standing legal, ethical, and practical precedent to think of commissioned officers as the loci of responsibility for the application of military AI. Next, given DoD’s emphasis on responsibility, it should devote significant pedagogical attention to the subjective skills, motivations, and perceptions of operators who depend on AI to execute their mission, beyond merely promoting technical literacy. Finally, the significance of character for RAI entails the application of proven character development methodologies from pre-commissioning education onward: critical dialogue, hands-on practice applying AI in complex circumstances, and moral reminders about the relevance of the DoD’s ethical principles for AI.

Constructing Teacher Self in a Dialogue between Multiple I-Positions: A Case from Teacher Education

This study approached preservice teacher identity by drawing on Dialogical Self theory and especially the notion of I-position. The study explored how one preservice subject teacher, Aino, constructed her I-position as a becoming teacher in a dialogue between voices originating from her previous school experiences and voices stemming from her subject teacher pedagogical studies. The results of a dialogically oriented narrative analysis of the interview data showed that Aino constructed her teacher identity in a dialogical process between multiple internal and external I-positions. The pedagogical studies produced both positive and negative boundary experiences that enabled Aino to recognize tensions between internal (e.g., I as a becoming teacher and I as a pupil) and external (e.g., my past teachers) I-positions within her dialogical self. Aino constructed her preservice teacher identity in a critical dialogue and negotiation between different voices and I-positions originating from different times and places. Consequently, teacher education should help students become aware of the dynamics and tensions of the social, cultural, and institutional structures surrounding teachers’ work and to develop as agentive teachers who can transform their own thinking and practice in the complex, changing world of teachers’ work.

SoTL in Human Movement Sciences: Moving Forward in South Africa

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is an emerging focus within South Africa (SA). In Human Movement Sciences (HMS) in SA, research is primarily discipline-specific, and many researchers are unfamiliar with SoTL. To explore how we (as HMS lecturers) could integrate SoTL into our research, we formed a community of practice (CoP). The SoTL unicycle depiction of Swart et al. (2016) suited our visual analogy since the focus of HMS is on the human body that is in motion. For us, the unicycle represented HMS SoTL in motion. Swart et al. (2016) viewed the SoTL movement as an academic’s individual journey, whereas we saw SoTL from a CoP perspective. Therefore, we adapted the unicycle into a tandem bicycle, representing our collaborative engagements. Participatory action learning and action research (PALAR) formed our theoretical framework. Through our dialogue, each tandem wheel’s focus emerged. The back wheel was about deciding to SoTL (or not). This became a linchpin of our critical dialogue during the relationship-building phase of our CoP. Once we committed, we needed to learn how to keep our CoP moving forward. This became the middle wheel of our tandem bicycle. Next, the front wheel and handlebar became our guide into what the future of SoTL would be for us. The tandem bicycle, therefore, represents our collective cycles of learning as we became SoTL researchers. We believe our learning can support others transitioning from discipline-specific research to engaging in SoTL. *Please note that this poster is best viewed in Adobe on a computer/laptop for interactivity. Click here to read the corresponding ISSOTL blog post.

Where Scripture and Tradition First Meet: How the Field of the Early Reception of the New Testament May (Re)Shape the Academic Dialogue between Evangelicals and Orthodox—Romania as a Case Study

In recent years, Evangelical scholars in Romania have shown a growing interest in studying the early reception of the New Testament, particularly in the writings of the Pre-Nicene Fathers (c. 90–300 CE). In parallel, a new generation of Romanian Orthodox scholars has come to appreciate the importance of a critical approach to both Scripture and Christian Tradition. As a result, fresh common ground is currently taking shape in academia: a critical approach to the early reception of the New Testament. This presents an opportunity for both Evangelical and Orthodox scholars in Romania to come together and explore certain issues of faith that have not been previously explored in this way. Since there are already several hints that the early reception of the New Testament could lead to a more meaningful dialogue, an innovative project has been initiated to further the hypothesis. The ongoing project involves five Evangelical New Testament scholars and five Orthodox New Testament scholars independently researching the same five obscure passages in the New Testament (Matthew 27.51–53, Romans 9–11, 1 Corinthians 15.29, Hebrews 6.4–6 and 1 Peter 3.18–22). Each passage is analyzed independently by one scholar from each denomination using the same methodology, i.e., a critical dialogue between exegesis and reception history. The forthcoming volume aims to assess not only the value of this approach for academic dialogue between Evangelicals and Orthodox in Romania, but also to estimate other potential gains should this method be applied on a larger scale, such as in various international ecumenical projects. There is one overarching question behind this project that still awaits a response: if the early reception of the New Testament is where Christian Scripture and Christian Tradition first meet, could it also be where Evangelicals and Orthodox finally meet?

Narrative Medicine Theory and Practice: the Double Helix Model

The genesis of the medical humanities as a discrete academic discipline engendered a need for a theoretical framework, a function taken on by the growing narrative medicine movement. More recently,...

Teachers’ perceptions about the value of protocols for professional development: results of a qualitative investigation

ABSTRACT Professional learning communities (PLCs) are a powerful school improvement strategy designed to advance teacher professional development. Protocols are tools for structuring teacher conversations in PLCs. In this article the authors present the results of a qualitative study of teacher perspectives about the value and effects of systematic protocol use. This investigation took place within the context of a Researcher–Practitioner Partnership situated in an urban school district that aims to bring culturally responsive computer science education to all K–5 students. Findings revealed that teachers believe use of protocols supplanted ‘chaotic’ conversation with critical dialogue and improved their instructional practices. Protocols appear to ameliorate common hindering factors to the realization of effective PLCs, including conflict avoidance, participation inequities, and lack of group purpose. An annotated list of protocols of especially high value, and that teachers used most frequently to advance their collaborative learning and professional development, is presented.

Seeking equity and justice in urban freight: where to look?

ABSTRACT Urban freight systems embed and reflect spatial inequities in cities and imbalanced power structures within transport decision-making. These concerns are principal domains of “transportation justice” (TJ) and “mobility justice” (MJ) scholarship that have emerged in the past decade. However, little research exists situating urban freight within these prevailing frameworks, which leaves urban freight research on socio-environmental equity and justice ill-defined, especially compared to passenger or personal mobility discussions. Through the lens that derives from TJ and MJ’s critical dialogue, this study synthesises urban freight literature’s engagement with equity and justice. Namely, the review evaluates: How do researchers identify equitable distributions of urban freight’s costs and benefits? At what scale do researchers evaluate urban freight inequities? And who does research consider entitled to urban freight equity and how are they involved in urban freight governance? The findings help inform researchers who seek to reimagine urban freight management strategies within broader equity and justice discourse.

“Public pedagogy, autotheory, and Egyptian female podcasters”

This research examines six Egyptian female podcasters whose work sits at the theoretical intersection of public pedagogy and autotheory, loosely defined as a first-person narrative form of feminist expression used to challenge hegemonic discourses as a means of activism. The two theories supplement each other, especially since feminism aims to abolish sexism, and public pedagogy is a means to obtain that result. The researchers adopted American-Canadian cultural critic Henry Giroux’s (2004) theory of public pedagogy because it allows for critical dialogue to address discrimination and push for egalitarian transfiguration. Autotheory was chosen for its relation to the podcasters' life experiences and their perceived desire to disrupt traditional social and cultural norms in Egypt. A qualitative critical analysis of the podcast episodes investigated the utilization of public pedagogy highlighting societal issues, advocating for decolonization through social change and responsibility, and critical learning through personal experience. The results confirmed that public pedagogy and autotheory were prevalent in the podcasts and established that this medium could have a meaningful impact on the Egyptian digital public sphere.

Untold Narratives and Reimagined Histories: The Work of Dawoud Bey and Titus Kaphar

This article provides high school art room activities that address the past, contemplate the present, and encourage teaching for change. The authors introduce two contemporary artists, Dawoud Bey and Titus Kaphar, whose work embraces the idea of untold narratives and juxtapose their artwork to instigate difficult but necessary conversations about America’s racial past and present. Bey’s photographic narratives and Kaphar’s innovative paintings unveil truths and histories of Black American culture that have long been neglected. Each juxtaposition is accompanied by background information, discussion questions, and ideas designed to engage students in critical dialogue about race and racism. These conversations are followed by creative writing, and artmaking processes encouraging students to learn from our histories to reimagine our present.

This is not ‘interesting’ research: Authentically Co-Creating Participatory Action Research in UK’s Post-Covid Culture Industries

Abstract This essay explores methodological, ethical, and practical aspects of authentically co-creating participatory action research (PAR) in post-Covid 19 participatory arts contexts in the UK. It analyses the limits and possibilities of PAR methods into leadership pathways in the UK’s arts and culture sector. In critical dialogue with decolonial and intersectional frameworks that seek to challenge and transform institutionalised privilege in the wake of the Covid pandemic, we investigate the financialisation of participatory strategies of cultural co-creation, with a particular focus on questions of racial and class dynamics in the arts. This essay develops a decolonial political ontology of PAR through a critique of both authenticity and its financialisation in participatory action research projects. Drawing on recent critical analyses of ‘post-extractivism’ and ‘co-creation’ in participatory research, we suggest that the recent financialisation of ‘impactful’ participation is an increasingly important but neglected ‘matter of concern’ for critical PAR methodologies.

Facilitating difficult conversations through art: creating an anti-racism digital image library for health professions education

Racism has been recognised as a threat to patient outcomes, public health, and the healthcare workforce, and health professions (HP) educators and learners alike are seeking effective ways to teach anti-racism in HP education. However, facilitating conversations on race and racism in healthcare contexts can be challenging. Integrative arts and humanities approaches can engage learners in the critical dialogue necessary to educational interventions focused on anti-racism. Discussions of works of visual art, for instance, can leverage visual art as an avenue for indirection to balance introspection and revelation with psychological safety. Structured pedagogical frameworks that emphasise the perspectives and experiences of participants, such as the Visual Thinking Strategies approach, can lead to open-ended and collaborative discussions where participants can safely explore their assumptions in a space that encourages productive discomfort. Visual arts-based programs on anti-racism in HP are limited, though, in part because no collection of images exists to support HP educators in this endeavour. This paper describes the process of developing a digital image library to support HP educators seeking to generate discussions on race and racism as part of anti-racism curricula. We also highlight common themes, best practices, and potential pitfalls associated with use of the image library.

“Everybody’s talking about doing co-design, but to really truly genuinely authentically do it […] it’s bloody hard”: Radical openness in youth participatory action research

Guided by the work of bell hooks, this study uses her concept of ‘radical openness’ as an innovation for multi-party facilitation teams negotiating different roles, positionalities and understandings of youth participatory action research (YPAR). We explore the challenges we negotiated as facilitators in YPAR as they materialised in weekly reflections. We write as a team of two project leaders, three researchers and a project manager. Data comprised recordings of collaborative meetings, weekly reflections and focus groups. Two themes captured the challenges that we experienced and reflexively negotiated. First, we uncovered our own biases and assumptions through critical reflection and dialogue between comrades. Second, as a facilitation team we were able to negotiate authenticity and accountability in relation to project governance and reporting. Radical openness enabled us to identify and mitigate power relations as a team, collectively deepening our consciousness and research praxis. We all proved willing to acknowledge what we each did not know and use our imaginations to see things from each other’s perspectives. Based on our experiences, we suggest that multi-party facilitation teams consider how radical openness can help to cultivate spaces of dialogue between comrades to disrupt hegemonic and colonised views in YPAR.

Munus triplex: A pedagogical application of a theological concept

The authors considered the identity of Christian teachers to be an urgent matter because of rapid changes in society, and assumed that such a consideration could help to envision education in an authentic way. They recognised that the current understanding of Christian identity emphasises unity with Christ and, therefore, set out to demonstrate that this unity is not only a matter of private spiritual life, but must also be carefully considered in professional practice. This article is not a research paper per se, but rather an exploratory, constructive essay. The authors examined and elaborated on unity with Christ with the help of the so-called three offices of Christ: prophet, priest, and king. After interpreting the Heidelberg Catechism and bringing it into critical dialogue with contemporary voices, they identified the implications of the three offices for educational practice. The office of prophet was reflected in both the implicit and explicit messages of the teacher. The office of priest was observable in a teacher’s compassionate behaviour, while the office of king was seen in the teacher’s humble citizenship and struggle against evil, as well as in the ethical views that a teacher promotes in class. Three offices were found helpful in rethinking Christian teachers’ role. The implications of this research included the potential for counterbalancing dualistic practices (role of the prophet), placing an emphasis on care instead of neoliberal pressures (role of the priest), and envisioning subject content within the coming of the kingdom (role of the king).Contribution: Through its consideration of the teaching profession in terms of the three offices of Christ, this article’s research seeks to enhance the professional identity of faithful Christian teachers. While the focus is primarily on those employed in Christian schools and also intends to influence the identity of those working in secular settings. The authors argue that teachers are prophets in the messages they impart, priests when they act compassionately, and kings when they encourage dedicated and exemplary citizenship.

Period poverty – Fostering gender equality through transformative learning

Period poverty is a global phenomenon that affects billions of people, particularly menstruators from developing countries, low-income families, and marginalised communities who lack access to sanitary products, education on healthy period management practices, and basic water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities to manage their periods with dignity. This results in stigma, shame, limited educational and socio-economic opportunities as well as affects their physical and mental health. In recent years, there has been growing awareness and sensitisation around period poverty worldwide, but there is still a long way to go in terms of eradicating the taboos, negative social norms, and values surrounding period poverty. Transformative learning offers a potential solution to address period poverty by fostering critical reflection, and action among individuals and communities to challenge and transform the structural causes of this issue. Transformative learning can play a key role in eradicating period poverty by providing individuals and communities with the right knowledge, skills, and tools to advocate for their rights, challenge social norms, gender stereotypes, and take collective actions to address the problem. By creating a learning environment that promotes critical reflection, dialogue, and collaboration, individuals and communities can eradicate period poverty and promote gender equality.