Using or Eschewing AI for Mixed-Media Art Journaling in History Education (Poster 6)

• In Event: AI in Social Studies Education: Tools for Thoughtful Practice With Generative Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

An important pedagogical element of history education is solitary, subjective, and
associative—or in other words, uniquely human—as opposed to artificially intelligent. No matter how prevalent AI as a tool becomes in classrooms, students may always have the opportunity to experience hands-on art-making, to let their hands and their minds’ eyes be a guide in historical learning. These ideas are central to my dissertation research in which I ponder how students bear witness to difficult histories that by their very nature elude language (e.g., Britzman, 1998; Garrett & Kerr, 2016). My research is situated in a large mid-Atlantic high school, within an African American history elective course, taught by a Black secondary social studies teacher employing an aesthetic practice of art journaling for high school students when engaging with the history of enslavement in America. This space is akin to what the psychoanalyst Winnicott (1971) termed a potential space between one’s inner life and the surrounding world (classroom). Drawing from interview data from six students I explore: What does it mean to give students space to draw on their inner resources, especially in the face of difficult histories that elude language and defy the logic of AI?

Author

• Leslie Smith Duss, The George Washington University