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.

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.

Purpose
This study examines the temporal dynamics shaping our understanding of search in education and the role language plays in legitimising these dynamics. It critiques the way online search is discursively constructed using home-education as a case study, and problematises how particular discourses are privileged, whom this privileging serves, as well as the likely consequences.

Design/methodology/approach
The study employs Faircloughian Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as its methodological framework. Search and discursive practices were recorded during observations, search-tasks and interviews with five Australian home-educating families. Discursive features from the Google interface were also analysed.

Findings
A discursive privileging of hasty search practices was identified. This was found alongside largely ineffectual search, but participants continued to discursively represent search as fast and easy. The study highlights the complex co-option of discourses surrounding online search that privilege particular temporal and commercial landscapes.

Originality/value
This study contributes new knowledge regarding time as a context for understanding search behaviours, locating the perception of temporal scarcity in education within broader discursive and social structures. To date, no studies are found which investigate the temporal factors surrounding search in home-education. Increasing global reliance upon online search means the findings have broad significance, as does the proliferation of home-education induced by COVID-19. Additionally, while much work problematises the power search engines wield to privilege certain discourses, few investigate the day-to-day discursive practices of searchers affording Google and others this power.

Within the contemporary higher education landscape, maintaining student engagement and retention has become of critical concern to universities. Universities have mostly responded to this concern by implementing institutional engagement and retention initiatives by professional university staff. Thus far, however, the role that teaching academics can play in student engagement and retention programs has been largely unexplored within institutional settings and within the higher education literature. In this paper, we reflect on our experiences as teaching academics involved in a student engagement and retention program at our university. Through a series of individual reflections and collaborative conversations, we problematise common approaches to student engagement and retention and question the role of teaching academics in these programs within neoliberal university settings. We bring to light troubling ethical dilemmas we faced during our participation in the program and our concerns about the deficit framing of students within institutionally driven engagement and retention initiatives.

Student support programs in higher education are commonly delivered by professional institution staff who are not directly involved in students’ courses. In this paper, we report on a unique student support program within a School of Education and the perceptions of the academic staff who designed and delivered the program. Methodologically, written and spoken critically reflective encounters were used to explore dimensions of student support: connectedness, mindsets, self-management, academic capabilities, and professional identity. We perceived the program positively influenced some students in developing feelings of connectedness, building self-management skills and understanding commitment, and in establishing a foundation for a student experience that fosters a pathway towards a teaching career. Tensions were revealed relating to the ethical responsibilities of supporting all students to continue study and staff’s own personal study experiences were found, at times, to contribute to assumptions about how students should engage with study. Findings suggest that addressing student needs across the dimensions first necessitates a shared understanding of what constitutes student success and how this is interpreted within a support program. Assisting academics in gaining deeper insight and understanding of what it means to be a student, particularly an academically vulnerable student, was a benefit of the program.