Figured Worlds, Class Hegemony, School Rituals, and AI: Ethnographic and Ethical Perspectives on Identity, Harm, and Humanizing Pedagogy in Education

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Abstract

This paper synthesizes research on “figured worlds” and class hegemony to explore how school rituals co-author student identities and inflict lasting emotional wounds. Juxtaposing an autoethnographic vignette of a shaming ritual (“Sumakey”) with scholarly literature, it illustrates how symbolic violence creates formative harm. The analysis extends this traditional harm to the potential for new, biased harms from AI in education. It concludes that the teacher’s experience of harm catalyzed a humanizing pedagogy grounded in critical empathy. This empathetic judgment is argued to be the essential ethical filter for both traditional classrooms and emerging educational technologies.

Author

• Chelsia Shanen Panekenan, Texas State University