Fairness Reimagined: Teacher Agency in L2 Writing Assessment in the Age of AI

• In Event: Empowered Praxis: Centering Teacher Agency, Identities, and Knowledges

Abstract

Amid growing linguistic diversity and the rise of generative AI, assessing L2 student writing poses new ethical and pedagogical challenges, especially in multilingual contexts like Quebec, where institutional norms often privilege standardized English. Drawing on anti-discriminatory education and ecological teacher agency, this study investigates how experienced university-level instructors in Quebec conceptualize and enact anti-discriminatory assessment practices when evaluating Chinese international students’ academic writing. Using an ethnographic phenomenological design, it draws on data from think-aloud protocols, interviews, and document analysis to explore how instructors interpret fairness, navigate AI influence, and exercise agency. Findings highlight how instructors challenge monolingual bias and reimagine assessment as an ethical and situated practice, with implications for teacher education as a liberatory space for inclusive policy transformation.

Author

• Sitong Wang, McGill University