The Efficiency-Authenticity Paradox: College Students' Strategic Navigation of AI in Higher Education

• In Event: 21020 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Science, Technology, and Education

Abstract

This study examines a tension emerging from our survey of college students (n=94) at two Midwestern institutions: students simultaneously embrace AI technologies while expressing fundamental concerns about their educational impact. Drawing on Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, we analyze how students distinguish between AI uses that enhance efficiency versus those that threaten the authentic acquisition of valued educational credentials. Our findings reveal that students actively negotiate boundaries between "appropriate" AI use (administrative tasks, editing) and "inappropriate" uses (replacing critical thinking, completing assignments). This tension reflects broader sociological questions about how technological advancement reshapes cultural capital acquisition in higher education. Our analysis extends Bourdieu's cultural capital theory by demonstrating how digital technologies create new forms of capital negotiation and valuation in educational settings. We contribute to emerging sociological understanding of how technological integration transforms educational experiences and credentials, highlighting the need for institutional policies that acknowledge both AI's utility and its potential to reconfigure educational value systems.

Authors

• Molly Kudym, Southern Illinois Univ Edwardsville

• Jacqueline Shea, Chancellors Postdoctoral Fellow at Southern Illinois University

• Kyunghwan Lee, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville