Problematizing Equity Issues in Multiliteracies and Use of Generative AI: Why Critical Ethical Literacy Matters

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 1:45 pm - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Approaches to Artificial Intelligence and Literacies

Abstract

In this conceptual paper, we call for a need to develop critical ethical literacy in multiliteracies work. The digital turn in composition illustrates significant advances in multiliteracies since the New London Group (1996) put forward their pedagogical blueprint. The unprecedented changes accompanying GenAI have forced us to rethink the purpose of teaching literacy, and how to deal with new inequities surrounding it, such as GenAI’s reinforcement of biases and stereotypes. Extending the New London Group’s (1996) notion of multiliteracies, which highlighted critical engagement in multiliteracies education, we argue that an equitable and critical focus in the multiliteracies research agenda should include an emphasis on ethics; such an ethical emphasis constitutes a much needed expansion and update of the multiliteracies framework.

Authors

• Nari Kim, Michigan State University

• Vashti Wai Yu Lee, Brigham Young University

• Sonja Mecham, Michigan State University

• Peter I. De Costa, Michigan State University