Announcements

Special Issue, Promises & Peril: Navigating the Tides of Generative AI in Education

2023-05-26

This special issue invites contributions that delve into the multifaceted aspects of this transformative period. We seek insights and explorations into data trends, the psychological and sociological impacts of GenAI, as well as philosophical interpretations of its implications for the future of education.

Read more about Special Issue, Promises & Peril: Navigating the Tides of Generative AI in Education

Current Issue

Vol. 33 No. 1 (2024): Special Issue: Expanding Landscapes of Academic Writing in Academia
Cover image for Journal of Education volume 33 issue 1

Cover art & design by Peter A. Vietgen, Art Director, Brock Education

Published: 2024-02-21

Editorial

Articles

  • Nicholas Rickards
    10-26

    From James Baldwin's (1962) “A Letter to My Nephew,” which laid bare the brutalities of being black in 1960s America, to Chanelle Miller’s published victim impact statement addressed to her assailant, which provided vocabulary and was kindle for #MeToo, examples abound demonstrating the ways in which the open letter continuously surfaces during pivotal historical junctures. Although the contextual significance of this format of authorship is widely used in scholarly disciplines ranging from education to history, the structural significance of the open letter as a methodologic approach to academic writing has yet to be theorized, leaving questions that merit attention: Why is the open letter so often used by marginalized groups? What are the literary and rhetorical effects of the enclosed addressed between sender and receiver? Finally, how does this format of writing create and affect the positionality and subjectivity of authors? By writing a letter addressed to Academia/School, this essay makes the case for the open letter as something to be studied but also a methodology and study in and of itself. By drawing on literary theory, cultural studies, and research on writing in academia, this essay suggests that the open letter is an important form of authorship and argues for revisiting the open letter as a legitimate form of scholarship as well as an authentic form of academic writing in education. 

  • Narelle Lemon, Jacqui Francis, Lisa M. Baker
    27-48

    Writing well and being well as academic writers is rarely spoken about, often hidden, and at times evaded. We believe that developing, maintaining, and growing well-being literacy not only engages the act but also allows awareness, reflection, and metacognitive thinking that enable mindful writing for well-being. Well-being literacy, the capacity to understand and employ well-being language for personal, collective, and global well-being, intrigues us. It encompasses nurturing, sustaining, and safeguarding well-being for individuals, groups, and systems to thrive. As scholars delving into well-being literacy, we, a diverse collective from across higher education career trajectories, investigate its role in scholarly writing and our academic realities. Our focus lies in unraveling the paradoxes inherent in higher education, particularly as researchers and writers. In this paper, we examine our own stories as a trioethnography and the impact of our writing practices on our own professional and personal lives. By doing so, we reveal the place of vulnerability, relationships, and meaning in who we are and are becoming as academic scholars. Guiding principles are shared with peers and colleagues in how they might cultivate writing practices while valuing and embodying well-being in the higher education space. 

  • Katarina Pantic, Megan Hamilton
    49-65

    Though essential for graduate students’ success, academic writing remains complex for a variety of reasons. Lack of institutional support and non-transparent writing practices leave graduate students in education to depend on the support of their academic supervisors. The aim of this paper is to familiarize graduate students with the genre of systematic literature review (SLR), as it is conducted in the field of education, by providing them with a self-paced approach to writing a SLR. This approach contains goals, explanations, and recommended time frames, while at the same time suggesting deliverables to be produced that would facilitate the writing of this important part of their research project. 

  • Lin Li
    66-84

    Mathematical symbols, such as those embodying quantum concepts, are indispensable for conveying complex ideas and relationships in academic writing. However, some education researchers and students keep a distance from anything mathematical: algebraic equations, geometrical reasoning, or statistical symbols. How to lower the access threshold for this type of mathematical narrative and reveal the meanings of a range of quantum conceptions to modern educators thus becomes a real problem. Using the pendulum motion equation as a reference point, I argue in this article for the advantages of academic English or French writing genres that fuse a range of mathematical symbols of quantum concepts and conceptual change. Such writings help demonstrate how incorporating the idea of probability (a) refines the debate among conceptual, verbal, and mathematical academic writing; (b) allows new conceptions that draw on the insights from quantum cognition-supported theories; (c) helps explain students’ understanding of mathematical symbols; and (d) offers a new taxonomy for categorizing academic writings. 

  • John Taylor
    85-102

    Qualitative research is valuable in medicine because of the deep insights it offers into the social and cultural dimensions of healthcare. Historically, qualitative methods have been influenced by critical theory and have shared its constructivist epistemology and orientation towards social justice. It can be challenging to teach such critical qualitative inquiry to healthcare professionals because its underlying philosophy can seem at odds with the objectivist biological perspective emphasized in medical education. This is unfortunate because several social inequities are perpetuated by modern healthcare systems and critical qualitative inquiry is essential to the project of addressing them. This article argues that Norman Denzin’s interpretive autoethnography is a promising method through which educators could introduce healthcare professionals to critical qualitative inquiry. In this method, the author uses the craft of writing creatively about their personal experiences as a tool for cultural interpretation and social justice activism. Such a creative analytic practice might seem alien to many medical professionals. On the other hand, the idea of analyzing their own experiences in detail is likely to feel familiar to them because of the prominence of reflective writing in healthcare professional development practice. This familiarity might make interpretive autoethnography accessible to healthcare professionals and practicing the method could help them to appreciate the value of interpretive writing as a way of investigating sociocultural meaning and promoting just change. 

  • Danielle A. Morris-O’Connor
    103-124

    It is important for instructors to reflect on and develop their teaching practices and pedagogy. Using a poetic inquiry method, this article offers an alternative model for reflecting on academic writing and teaching practices using a found poetry cluster. My example focuses on graduate academic writing instruction. I create found poems from my own written reflections and literature on graduate writing and organize them into a cluster to identify connections and dissonances. I finish with a discussion of my critical analysis of the poetry cluster and how using poetic inquiry as a reflective method helped me to develop both my writing process and teaching pedagogy. 

  • Helen J. DeWaard, Giulia Forsythe, Deborah Baff
    125-146

    View article for visual abstract.

  • Nancy Taber
    147-165

    Drawing from the literature and the historical fiction-based feminist antimilitarist research I conducted in writing my debut novel, A Sea of Spectres, this article discusses the what and why of fiction-based research. I detail how to: (a) move from inspiration to fiction-based research; (b) frame the research; (c) develop research questions; (d) and embed theory and data in the story through applying the craft of fiction writing. My aim with fiction-based research is to create compelling characters situated in historical and contemporary settings in order to draw readers into engaging and accessible stories that help them learn about themselves, their understandings of others, and their relationships to society. I conclude with recommendations for conducting fiction-based research; delve into the methodology of fiction-based research; study the craft of writing fiction; read in related genre(s); abide by the ethics of fiction and fiction-based research; and learn about the fiction publishing process. 

  • Donna Poade, Russell M. Crawford
    166-179

    The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) in academia has prompted various debates on the uses, threats, and limitations of tools that can create text for numerous academic purposes. Critics argue that these advancements may provide opportunities for cheating and plagiarism and even replace the art of writing entirely. To reclaim the creativity and depth that academic writing holds, we propose both an innovative approach to safeguard the creativity and depth of academic writing and a scaffolded way to enhance success in terms of authenticity for the author and, by extension, meaning for the reader. This novel conceptual algorithmic trickle filter model aims to inform successful academic writing and embody the writer’s agency—a task too sophisticated for current AI tools. Our model provides a scaffolded decision-making process in a highly personal, flexible, and iterative individual writing development tool applied in a health-conscious way. We position this model as a step towards a pedagogic paradigm shift in reclaiming academic writing that, rather than competing with AI, doubles down on the personal self-evaluative aspects that academic writing offers both author and reader. 

  • Snežana Obradović-Ratković
    180-188

    Inspired by Morris-O'Connor's article published in this special issue.
    Found by Snežana Obradović-Ratković

View All Issues