“I’m Not Worried about Robots Taking Over the World. I Guess I’m Worried about People”: Emoting, Teaching, and Learning with Generative AI

Sarah Seeley; Michael Cournoyea

doi:10.20343/teachlearninqu.13.43

Authors

Sarah Seeley University of Toronto Mississauga
Michael Cournoyea University of Toronto https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2186-7861

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.13.43

Keywords:

generative AI, emotionality, higher education, qualitative methods

Abstract

Qualitative studies that examine the impact of generative AI technologies on higher education remain scant. Whether it is the ethical dimensions of modeling human emotions within these technologies or the authentic emotional reactions to these technologies and their outputs—emotionality is at the centre of generative AI discourse. This paper reports findings from a study exploring educators’ emotional responses to the integration of generative AI and higher education. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 37 multidisciplinary faculty at the University of Toronto Mississauga (26% response rate). We first describe the data collection process, including an overview of the institutional context. We then outline a historical context to frame our examination of educators’ self-reported emotional responses to teaching, learning, and living with generative AI. Most respondents expressed ambivalence of some variety, and we noted disciplinary patterns regarding the type of fears and excitements respondents reported. The paper concludes with two pedagogical provocations.

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Author Biographies

Sarah Seeley, University of Toronto Mississauga

Sarah Seeley (CAN) is an associate professor in the teaching stream at University of Toronto Mississauga. She has conducted research at universities in the United States, Colombia, and Canada. Her research interests include writing pedagogies, generative AI, and academic labour practices.

Michael Cournoyea, University of Toronto

Michael Cournoyea (CAN) is an assistant professor in the teaching stream at the University of Toronto. His previous work examined epistemic strategies in medicine, and his current research addresses the impact of LLMs on technological literacies and higher education.

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