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Working With and Against Generative AI in the Neoliberal Higher Education Workplace
Sun, August 10, 2:00 to 3:30pm, Swissotel, Floor: Concourse Level, Zurich CAbstract
Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) tools became a routine part of higher education. Many students view Gen AI positively and use it to complete coursework. However, doubts about reliability and concern that students will misuse AI remain. The neoliberalization of higher education compounds these concerns, positioning students as consumers of a product, while increasingly precarious instructors are evaluated on the profitability of their labor.
Although studies explore student and faculty perceptions of AI and the potential for positive and negative impacts of AI in higher education, few consider the question of labor: Who is asked to do the intellectual and technical work of mastering Gen AI, setting standards and policies for Gen AI use in the classroom, overseeing student Gen AI use, and identifying misconduct? Likewise, what can we learn about higher education as a workplace from official policies and the way individual instructors handle AI use in their classes? This paper addresses these questions by drawing on official university policies and guidelines for instructors on AI use from eight Midwestern research universities and a case study of AI policies from course syllabi across three social science/humanities departments at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Findings indicate that university AI policies reflect the neoliberalization of higher education, emphasizing career readiness (including AI literacy) and individualizing responsibility for instructor AI literacy and management of AI-related academic misconduct. Course syllabi AI policies vary within and between departments, with social science/humanities instructors largely viewing AI as “academic misconduct.” Few instructors allow students to use AI and there is no evidence of assignments designed around developing student AI literacy. Universities frame AI use as a given, where resources and policies are developed to support its use, while many instructors view AI as an obstacle to learning.