AI hyped? A horizon scan of discourse on artificial intelligence in education (AIED) and development
Open accessAbstract
The study seeks to understand how the AI ecosystem might be implicated in a form of knowledge production which reifies particular kinds of epistemologies over others. Using text mining and thematic analysis, this paper offers a horizon scan of the key themes that have emerged over the past few years during the AIEd debate. We begin with a discussion of the tools we used to experiment with digital methods for data collection and analysis. This paper then examines how AI in education systems are being conceived, hyped, and potentially deployed into global education contexts. Findings are categorised into three themes in the discourse: (1) geopolitical dominance through education and technological innovation; (2) creation and expansion of market niches, and (3) managing narratives, perceptions, and norms.
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Often little attention is paid to how AI technologies in educational contexts may reify knowledge along extractivist lines.
“This echoes concerns from critical voices such as Nemorin and colleagues who have noted that often little attention is paid to how AI technologies in educational contexts may reify knowledge along extractivist lines [65].”
From Responding to Generative AI Technologies with Research-through-Design: The Ryelands AI Lab as an Exploratory Study (2024) · cites this paper as [65]
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“Explainable AI practices are designed to make the transparency more comprehensible, so that teachers, students, and school leaders are in a better position to understand how a model arrived at a specific recommendation or decision [31,33-35].”
- Authors
- Nemorin, S., Vlachidis, A., Ayerakwa, H. M., & Andriotis, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Oxford (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- University of Ghana (GH)
- University of the West of England (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Nemorin, Selena
- Venue
- Learning, Media and Technology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2022-07-05
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 38-51
- ISSN
- 1743-9884 (ISSN-L)
- 1743-9892
- OpenAlex
- W4284681350
- Cited by
- 229
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 39 · 2025: 81 · 2024: 70 · 2023: 31 · 2022: 8
- FWCI
- 46.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Learning Media and Technology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- UWE Research Repository (UWE Bristol) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- UK Research and Innovation (MR/T022493/1)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Digital Education and Society
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Artificial Intelligence in Education
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
- Keywords
- artificial intelligence in education, AI hype, AI discourse, epistemology, knowledge production, technology markets, global education
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