Imagining Post-Secondary Writing Instruction in a GenAI Future by Researching Alongside Undergraduate Students

• In Event: Too much of a good thing? How AI is (re)shaping academic careers in higher education

Abstract

This study examines how undergraduate students navigate Generative AI (GenAI) tools in their writing processes through student-researcher partnerships. Considering educational futuring, the project challenges deterministic narratives about AI by centering student voices and agency. Using think-aloud protocols, undergraduate researchers observe peers using Large Language Models during writing tasks to understand decision-making processes, which are interrogated in follow-up interviews. Preliminary findings suggest students hold complex views of GenAI integration, mediated by competing factors including ethical considerations and writing beliefs. Addressing historical inequities in writing instruction by positioning student partnership as a method of "unforgetting" traditionally marginalized voices, this work contributes to developing pedagogical interventions that help students become critical users of AI tools while reimagining writing instruction as collaborative and justice-centered.

Authors

• Jennifer Burke Reifman, San Diego State University

• Sydney Sullivan, University of California - Davis

• Rosabel Ibrahim, San Diego State University