Unpacking the Hidden Curricula in Educational Automation: A Methodology for Ethical Praxis

Abstract

The future of educational automation in higher education is commonly seen as an inevitable trajectory and beyond the control of individual institutions or communities. Much research has focused on how such technologies can remove agency and reproduce inequalities through encoded biases. Indeed, many conceptualisations of educational automation are problematic, but less is known about what can be done to take more control over them. By moving away from critique alone, this paper seeks to demystify educational automation and develop a methodology that enables both institutions and staff to take greater control over the technologies in their institutional work. This methodology emerges from multiple research projects exploring digital education, automation, and educational futures and brings together the findings from these to find ways to establish ethical praxis in future forms of educational automation. This methodology and its attendant ethical praxis posit that critique must be used in tandem with creativity and activism to fully realise new and just educational futures.