A decolonial approach to AI in higher education teaching and learning: strategies for undoing the ethics of digital neocolonialism
Michalinos Zembylas
Abstract
The aim of this article is to use decolonial thinking, as applied in the field of AI, to explore the ethical and pedagogical implications for higher education teaching and learning. The questions driving this article are: What does a decolonial approach to AI imply for higher education teaching and learning? How can educators, researchers and students interrogate the coloniality of AI in higher education? Which strategies can be useful for undoing the ethics of digital neocolonialism in higher education? While there is work on decolonial theory in AI as well as literature on the decolonization of higher education, there is not much theorization that brings those literatures together to develop a decolonial conceptual framework for ethical AI in higher education teaching and learning. This article offers this conceptual framing and suggests decolonial strategies that challenge algorithmic coloniality and colonial AI ethics in the context of higher education teaching and learning.