Conference Agenda

Research Aim

Students today are born into a world of technology, and grow up expecting information at their fingertips. Unfortunately, the internet is also full of fake news and social media is used by some to propagate false claims and rumours. In this paper I argue that nurturing curiosity will help students develop the skills needed to be discerning consumers of the internet. Peterson (2020) calls curiosity ‘…the desire to resolve a knowledge gap…’ (p. 7). Lamnina & Chase (2021) pointed out that curiosity ‘is an important construct to consider in classroom settings, because theory and research suggest that curiosity aids learning’ (p. 665). I use my own experiences growing up in a passive learning environment to interrogate how that affected me as a learner and educator.

Theoretical Framework

In this paper, I use autoethnography as my framework. As a student curiosity was never a part of my learning environment. Rather, I was expected to listen, accept, memorize, and reproduce the information in countless tests. Autoethnography provides a way to interrogate and recognize my personal experiences as part of my research process.

Method

I use storytelling to trace my journey as a learner who accepts into one who leans into curiosity to investigate and even disagree. Storytelling within an autoethnographic framework lets me accommodate subjectivity and acknowledge that emotions are part of my evolution as a learner and educator (Ellis, Adams & Bochner, 2011).

Findings and Relevance to Conference Theme

My findings will show the importance of nurturing curiosity. It aligns with the conference theme of quality teaching because a curious learner will seek to understand diverse viewpoints and recognize inequity. Racialized and marginalized students will learn to be confident in challenging these behaviours. My experiences underline the necessity for classroom practices that nurture perceptive and critical learners.

This essay debates the changes produced by neoliberalism in education, with the use of technologies, such as Big Techs (Giants in Technology) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the ways in which such innovations resize education, work and subjectivity teacher. The main aim is to carry out a theoretical critique of these issues in order to identify strategies and procedures adopted in the production of this new rationality to be incorporated by the subjects, so that such identification is capable of pointing out possibilities for reaction. From a bibliographic review, an articulation was developed between classic and contemporary authors of neoliberalism, such as Karl Marx and Theodor Adorno, with those who address the technological invasion in the educational field, such as Safatle, Silva Junior and Neves, and those who analyze the impacts observed on the subject, such as Sagrado, Matta and Gill. The relevance of the discussion on neoliberalism, as a rationality that subjects the State and imposes its ways of being and acting on the individual, lies in the intention of rescuing the subject's autonomy, self-determination and non-acceptance. Since technological mechanisms applied to the educational field, via EDTECHs and AI, have transformed people into human capital through the use of technology and innovative approaches, it must be the subject of reflection with the aim of providing social justice in a world still marked by inequalities. This challenge affects teachers, as they have a central role to play and can be considered essential to achieving this promotion. To conclude, knowledge of the students’reality and the contexts in which they find themselves allows teachers to adopt measures capable of better promoting social justice and sustainable development in the multiple and diverse scenarios they find themselves in.