DECOLONIZING ACADEMIC WRITING IN THE AGE OF AI: A PHOTOVOICE STUDY THROUGH A CRITICAL DIGITAL LITERACY LENS
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This study explores how a decolonial, critical digital literacy (CDL) oriented writing pedagogy mediated pre-service English teachers’ engagement with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in academic writing. Situated in a Global South context, we adopted a qualitative case study to examine how GenAI operated as both a pedagogical resource and a site of ideological tension in efforts to decolonize academic writing pedagogy. The study focused on one focal participant, Dava, a pre-service English teacher enrolled in an initial teacher education program at a private university in Indonesia. Data were collected from multiple sources, including semi-structured interviews, written responses, reflections, photovoice artefacts, AI interaction logs, and Zoom-mediated classroom interactions. The findings are organized around four interrelated dimensions: (1) Dava’s investment in learning English and his strategic use of multiple AI tools, (2) his reflective engagement with learning to write using ChatGPT, (3) his development of critical interactions with AI-generated content, and (4) his need for additional pedagogical support. While GenAI supported idea development and engagement with academic discourse, it also reproduced Eurocentric norms that risked reinforcing algorithmic colonialingualism. The study underscores the importance of pedagogizing decoloniality through critical digital literacy (CDL) – oriented writing instruction to support learners in engaging with GenAI critically, ethically, and reflexively, while affirming multilingual voices and situated ways of knowing in AI-mediated writing contexts.
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