Provocations Revisited: The Digital Turn: Considering the Implications for Teaching and Learning in the Field of Comparative and International Education (CIE)

Group Submission Type: Special Session

Description of Session

The dizzying pace of political, environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic change has created a “shock digitisation” of science with digital and social inequalities rendering certain subgroups significantly more vulnerable. Those with less digital engagement often reap less benefit from digital technology usage (Helsper, 2021; Paus-Hasebrink et al., 2014; Helsper & Eynon, 2013). As a professional society, we are asked to consider the possibilities for, and challenges to, the teaching and learning of comparative and international education (CIE) in a digital age.

This session brings together distinguished international scholars and an engaged CIES audience to explore what the rapid transformations in technological advancements (e.g., Generative Artificial Intelligence, the Internet, and Connectivity) mean for teaching and learning in CIE. What challenges does the digital turn pose for the teaching and learning of multi-disciplinary, international perspectives (Kergel et al., 2018)? What epistemological, theoretical, and practical learning strategies in CIE are being used? What does the digital turn mean for theory, methodology, and practice in CIE? What are the ethical concerns in appropriating new technologies?

This Provocations session is influenced by the late Robert Cowen’s (2023) consideration of “Comparative Education: and now?” who suggested that as a field we have acquired routinized ways to legitimate our academic identity that may not permit ourselves to be excited about ‘the future.’ Because the future is now and urgent, it necessitates our consideration of how we are helping or hindering students to learn about the CIE field and what digitization holds for the field as we move forward.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Organizers

• Katheryn Mary Periasamy Purcell, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Jonathan Marino, UW-Madison

• Seonmi Jin, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Ariel Borns, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Mariah Pol, University of Wisconsin Madison

Chairs

• Patricia Kubow, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Elena Aydarova, The University of Wisconsin-Madison

Invited Speakers

• Will Brehm, University of Canberra

• Petar Jandrić

• Louise Mifsud, Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet)

• Iveta Silova, Arizona State University

• Matthew A.M. Thomas, The University of Glasgow