Of teachers and centaurs: Exploring the interactions and intra-actions of educators on AI education platforms

Abstract

Recent advancements in generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) were accompanied by both hype and fear regarding the ways in which such technologies of automation would replace human labor in various fields, including education. Rather than focusing on the replacement of humans in teaching, this piece uses new materialist thought [Barad, Karen. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.] to consider how a new subjectivity, the centaur, might offer a different orientation toward GenAI technologies as tools that possess potentiality for new becomings in teaching. This theoretical piece looks at three AI education (AIED) platforms as a means of diagnosing how current models of AI tools attempt to design for teacher-centaurs by ushering in a more productive teacher workforce. The article also offers an alternative perspective of what might be considered centaur teaching practices, entangling humans and AI in ways that imagine how human-technical relations might be otherwise.