Reconceptualizing Informal Learner–GenAI Relations: A Posthumanist Intra-action Framework

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Posthuman Encounters with Educational Technologies

Abstract

This conceptual paper reconceptualizes informal learning by examining how learner–generative AI (GenAI) relations are co-constituted through sociotechnical entanglements. While informal learning is often framed by humanist ideals of autonomy and agency, GenAI is typically positioned as a neutral, assistive tool. Drawing on posthumanist theory, particularly Barad’s (2007) concept of intra-action, this paper critiques these framings and advances a relational ontology of learning. Using a diffractive methodology, it engages conceptual texts from informal learning, educational technology, and posthumanist theory to trace how agency, intentionality, and informality are configured within human–nonhuman relations. This paper contributes by challenging human-centered assumptions, repositioning GenAI as an epistemic participant, and demonstrating diffractive analysis as a methodological tool for theorizing learner–technology relations.

Author

• Tianxing Feng, University of Georgia