Special Issue:
Historical Futurism and Inexorable Materiality in the Age of Generative AI
Although the initial disruption of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is behind us, we remain plagued by ahistorical and im-material narratives surrounding the relationship between humans, technology, and power which obscure problems with techno-solutionism that cut to the heart of the educational project. Dominant discourses across education surrounding the emergence of GenAI frequently focus on the novelty of this technology, leading to endless speculation about GenAI’s place in our educational future and relentless injunctions to incorporate it into our practice. The failure to connect GenAI—and the various platforms and software it enables—to both itsmaterial and ideological lineage permits the intensification of the techno-rationalization of schools and society to proceed with minimal scrutiny while masking itself as progress. Such future-fetishism currently driving educational policy and practice obscures the perennial nature of our contemporary dilemmas at the same time as it encourages us to accept these circumstances as, to borrow a phrase from Maxine Greene, “hopelessly there” (1988).
This special issue invites papers that take up questions raised and problems posed by ahistorical and immaterial narratives surrounding GenAI specifically, or educational technology in general. We are particularly interested in papers that interrogate discourses of neutrality and novelty surrounding technology in educational settings. Possible entry points include, but are not limited to:
- Historical/philosophical appraisals of technological neutrality, especially within EdTech discourse
- Examinations of technological inevitability and its relation to human-machine agencies
- Critical analyses of the materiality of technology, AI, and machine learning
- Intersections of historical-spatial analysis of digital/virtual education
- (Dis)embodiment in the landscape of GenAI and EdTech
- Neo-Luddite analyses of GenAI specifically, or educational technology broadly, in education
- Critical analysis of LLMs as methodological tools within qualitatively and philosophically grounded educational research
Timeline:
- Proposals due (~1,000 words): July 15th, 2026
- Decision notifications by: August 1st, 2026
- Draft manuscripts due by: November 8th, 2026
- Reviews and feedback due by: TBD
- Final manuscripts due by: TBD
Maxine Greene, The Dialectic of Freedom (New York: Teacher’s College Press, 1988), 22, emphasis original.
For more information, and how to submit, see the full call:
QualPage 