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

Session Type: Structured Poster Session

Abstract

When writing this chapter, I initially took a dismissive approach to an
increasing presence of generative artificial intelligence (AI), the large
language-based model for generating text and images, while also wondering
aloud if and how the art-based history education research design for my
dissertation might have incorporated AI. I noted that, even though I found
it fascinating to read in popular press and practitioner journal articles the
ingenious ways that history educators are making use of AI as a pedagogical
tool, I wanted to assert the irrelevance of artificial intelligence regarding the
qualities of interiority, subjectivity, and intersubjective dialogue—qualities
that are indisputably uniquely human. I felt emboldened to do so based on
my research, in which I explored how an aesthetic practice of art journaling allowed space for nondiscursive expression that privileged student interiority as the students engaged with African American history curriculum.Before making such assertions, however, I decided to do my homework—to read more about the creative capabilities of AI and experiment with generative art-making AI. Throughout this chapter, I discuss how my discoveries about the use of AI both mirrored and complicated my initial premise. In
my conclusion, I summarize the outcomes of my exploration of art-based research with and without AI.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Social Studies Research

Chairs

• Cathryn van Kessel, Texas Christian University

• Christopher H. Clark, University of North Dakota

Papers

• A Technoskeptical Approach to Generative AI in Social Studies Education (Poster 1) - Marie K. Heath, Loyola University Maryland; Daniel G. Krutka, University of North Texas

• AI in Social Education: Tools for Thoughtful Practice with Generative Artificial Intelligence (Poster 2) - Christopher H. Clark, University of North Dakota; Cathryn van Kessel, Texas Christian University

• In AI we trust? (Poster 3) - Christopher H. Clark, University of North Dakota; Elizabeth Reynolds, University of Maryland

• Integrating AI literacy within Social Studies: An Argument, a Framework, and a Call to Action (Poster 4) - Thomas C. Hammond, Lehigh University; Zilong Pan, Lehigh University; Julie Oltman, Lehigh University

• Preparing social studies teachers to apply ChatGPT as a linguistically responsive tool for multilingual learners through teacher research (Poster 5) - Kevin Donley, Georgetown University

• Using or Eschewing AI for Mixed-Media Art Journaling in History Education (Poster 6) - Leslie Smith Duss, The George Washington University

• (Posthuman) ABCs of [Artificial] Alternative Intelligence(s) and Implications for Social Studies Education (Poster 7) - Erin Adams, Kennesaw State University; Bretton A. Varga, California State University - Chico