Renee Morrison

This research combined critical discourse analysis (CDA), concordance analysis and thematic analysis to understand early adolescent students’ conceptions of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). The rapid rise of GenAI has raised new questions for learning in all levels of education, given the capacity of ChatGPT and other GenAI applications (Gemini, Dall-E, MS Co-Pilot) to instantly produce text and images. The study analysed how GenAI was discursively conceptualised by early adolescents (Grades 7–8, ages 11–13 years) who were familiar with ChatGPT, while participating in qualitative focus groups in a secondary school. The focus group data was iteratively coded using thematic and concordance analysis identifying four repeated themes in the students’ discourse: (i) GenAI is easy to use, downplaying the revolutionary progress, (ii) GenAI and power: machine versus human responsibility, (iii) GenAI and epistemology: what machines and humans know, and (iv) GenAI and ontology: what is actual or real. CDA was also used to interpret students’ discursive construction of GenAI. The study provides insights into adolescent perspectives of the complexities of GenAI in their own terms. The findings are significant given the paucity of research that applies discursive analyses or concordance analysis to student conceptions of GenAI, and the increasing and inevitable influence of GenAI in everyday life.

This paper investigates a set of interactive resources for mining and energy education produced by the Australian mining industry and endorsed by Australia's Education Department. Building on Eaton, E., & Day, N. (2020. Petro-pedagogy: Fossil fuel interests and the obstruction of climate justice in public education. Environmental Education Research, 26(4), 457–473) ‘petro-pedagogy’, the study employs critical multimodal discourse analysis to show that these ‘Oresome interactives’, while often educational, disproportionately promote the interests of the mining industry. The resources represent the industry as an inevitable and positive part of modern Australian living, present the environmental impacts of mining as minimal and represent alternative energy sources as unstable, rare and unsightly. The paper concludes by calling for caution with regard to the use of such ‘gifted’ educational resources.

Interactive features are increasingly incorporated into digital science animations to make the resources entertaining and facilitate viewers’ perception and comprehension of the target knowledge. Despite the growing interest for interactive animations in science education, science animation research lacks a systematic characterization of interactive animation in relation to the nature of knowledge construed. This paper offers a Science Animation Interactivity Framework (SAIF) to characterize interactive features in science animations from a Systemic Functional Semiotic perspective based on an examination of the interactive animations in Scootle, the online repository of digital education resources endorsed by the Australian government and aligned to the Australian curriculum. The framework outlined in this study attends to both the interactive and epistemic affordances of interactive animations, further facilitating the conduct of empirical research on animation as a resource for science education.

Turn to Teaching (TTT) is an employment based initial teacher education pathway delivered in partnership with the Queensland Department of Education. It is designed to strengthen teacher supply while maintaining a strong focus on classroom readiness and teaching quality. The program is designed with the understanding that learning to become a teacher is complex and requires input from schools and universities.

Aligned with Strong Beginnings workforce priorities, the program attracts midcareer professionals and industry experienced graduates into teaching, particularly in priority subjects and locations. Participants are employed part time in schools in the second year of their two- year degree. While completing their teaching qualification, the TTT program enables participants to integrate theory and practice and build professional capability in authentic school contexts.

Generative-artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) has the capacity to alter knowledge production and sense-making behaviours, arguably the core business of education. This, coupled with their rapid development means considerable media attention has been devoted to Gen-AI systems. This chapter presents a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Australian newspaper articles covering Gen-AI in education during 2023. Newspapers have long influenced the discursive making of educational realities, but regarding new technology, often rely upon reductionist and dichotomous discourses. Following Fairclough, I analyse how certain textual features—namely metaphor and modality—draw upon and strengthen these discourses, and naturalise particular constructions of Gen-AI and educational stakeholders. The utility of Cohen’s moral panic for understanding this patterned response is also considered. I identify four root metaphors and problematise their reliance upon habitual framings for representing new technology. While both utopic and dystopic visions are found in metaphor, analyses point to a predominantly favourable stance of Gen-AI. I show how this stance is further strengthened via modal tendencies which draw upon deterministic discourses to validate the powers of Gen-AI. These findings are discussed as further evidence of the complex co-option of discourses surrounding edtech towards particular ideological and economic landscapes. I discuss why limited discursive representations of Gen-AI are problematic in education, demonstrating the capacity for CDA to help map and deepen these representations.

The intensification of research agendas and growing performativity demands in higher education have reshaped academic work, with a focus on narrowly defined research outputs, competition, rankings, and “excellence”. This study explores how universities and their workers respond to these pressures. Using an adapted version of Laurent Berlant’s 100s technique, we reflect on our experiences writing for publication within an audit culture. Drawing on our participation in an 18-month “Shut Up and Write!” program at an Australian university, we employ a collaborative autoethnographic approach to analyse our engagement. Initially aiming to create space for meaningful work, we realised that our efforts were entangled in dominant performative cultures. In our writing, we consider alternatives, acknowledging the risk of reinforcing audit narratives while asserting our identities as authentic scholars. Our findings aim to contribute to fostering a collegial and responsible research culture that enables academics to navigate professional expectations in safer, rewarding ways.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is widely regarded as a transformative tool in education, providing rapid access to vast amounts of information. However, there are concerns regarding its potential to disseminate misinformation and undermine Indigenous data sovereignty—issues that are critical for Indigenous communities when AI-generated texts misrepresent their identities and knowledge. Machine learning models have been shown to perpetuate biases, often marginalising historically unrepresented groups. The exclusion of Indigenous voices in the development of GenAI raises significant ethical concerns, particularly in relation to cultural misrepresentation and the appropriation of Indigenous narratives.

As AI-driven tools such as ChatGPT become increasingly integrated into educational and public discourse, their role in shaping perceptions of Australian First Nations peoples warrants critical examination. Our research has specifically investigated how GenAI responds when explicitly instructed—problematically—to adopt the persona of an Australian First Nations person. This study employs a collaborative autoethnographic methodology to examine how four researchers reflect and respond to the ways GenAI tools represent Australian First Nations peoples. Through collective and culturally grounded analysis of the researchers’ individual experiences with AI-generated content, the study critically explores the ethical and representational challenges posed by GenAI.

Findings revealed that GenAI outputs were often superficial, generalised, and culturally insensitive. The First Nations content analysis identified a tendency to homogenise Australian First Nations identities, reinforcing stereotypes rather than authentically reflecting Australian First Nations perspectives. This raises concerns about digital colonialism and the misappropriation of Australian First Nations knowledge, as AI-generated content often draws from Western narratives rather than Australian First Nations worldviews.

Researcher reflections further emphasised ethical risks, misinformation, cultural inaccuracy, and the lack of complexity as key concerns, stressing the need for transparent, culturally responsive AI practices. This study contributes to the discourse on AI ethics and Australian First Nations representation.

The quality of teachers and teacher-education continues to be a contentious focus of political debate internationally. Many have identified predominantly negative discursive representations of educators in politics, perpetuating myths of sub-standard teacher and teacher-educator quality. Much research has investigated the incentives and effects of these prevailing political discourses, but less researched is how such discourses operate and the textual features that characterise them. We employ critical discourse analysis (CDA) to explore some specific textual features that construct teacher quality and initial-teacher-education (ITE) quality as a problem in Australian political texts. Through a micro-level analysis of 14 political speeches, media releases, and debates spanning a ten-year period we identify several recurring presuppositions about teacher ‘quality’. These problematic assumptions include the belief that teacher quality does not meet public expectations, that ITE is inadequate and fails to appropriately select and prepare graduates, and that there is one universal form of ‘best’ teacher and best way to prepare them. We also identify and problematise representations of educators as inept, irresolute parties, dependent upon the guidance of the Government, who is positioned as steadfast and proficient, and perfectly placed to solve the ‘quality problem’. These discursive constructions perpetuate myths surrounding ‘quality’ despite counter-evidence with significant implications for teachers, teacher-educators, and public confidence in the profession.

Like information science more broadly, search engine research has largely been fragmented into two factions: system-oriented and user-oriented studies. This limits our capacity for answering some fundamental questions surrounding an integral—often invisible—part of modern life. Given the “search-ification” of this life, given an oligopolous global market and an information-wealthy but attention-poor audience, methods capable of studying search engines, as well as their relationship with users and society are increasingly necessary. This paper proposes critical discourse analysis (CDA) as an effectual, oft-overlooked method for search engine research, one capable of interrogating both search engines and their use. The paper outlines CDA, provides examples of its application, and highlights its capacity for progressing our critical understanding of search engines. This developing understanding, evidenced by a review of the literature, suggests that challenges brought by search cannot be resolved by critiquing the power of systems alone. Rather, a reclaiming of today's information infrastructure requires we also illuminate the socio-political environments of search systems, and the metacognitive, invisible processes pivotal to our communication with them. While power-analyses of search continue, and some have begun to employ CDA, little recognition exists of this theoretical perspective's capacity for supporting both system-oriented and user-oriented studies.