Decolonising GenAI in Higher Education: Be(com)ing response-able with(out) GenAI

Abstract

In this paper, we engage with critical Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) through a decolonial reading and call for enacting a pedagogy of refusal in higher education. Through critical consciousness, we aim at informing educators as they (en)counter GenAI for/in higher education, and at supporting them in be(com)ing response-able. We expose six categories of GenAI harm that affect higher education: (1) Complicity in exploitative practices, (2) Perpetuating whiteness, (3) Threat to academic integrity, (4) Reinforcing control through surveillance, (5) Dehumanisation through datafication, and (6) Mental health consequences. Subsequently, we borrow Collins’ four domains of power (i.e., structural, disciplinary, hegemonic, interpersonal) to examine the underlying colonial mechanisms that are intertwined into GenAI and its use in higher education and that reproduce harmful patterns. Finally, we propose decolonising practices to reaffirm educators’ capacity to resist the uncritical use of GenAI and reclaim education as a relational endeavour.