Digital Horizons: Faculty and Student Perspectives on ChatGPT and the Future of English Studies

Abstract

The growing body of literature on the uses, challenges, potentials, and ethics of generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) is rich and nuanced; however, such research rarely examines faculty and student perspectives comparatively or in the context of discipline-specific issues and concerns. Since both faculty and students are implicated in shaping a future for their discipline of study, and both are deeply affected by disciplinary policies and standards of practice, it is crucial to situate faculty and student perspectives as a part of a shared discourse rather than two related but distinct conversations. This thesis investigates the specific expectations, concerns, ambitions, and desires for the future that circulates among and between English faculty and students in the wake of the widespread availability of generative AI applications like ChatGPT. It employs mixed-methods to compare and contrast the responses of eleven faculty and thirty-one students from one Ontario university’s English department to semi-structured questionnaires on the topic of generative AI, the future of English studies, and participants’ perceptions of one another. Participant perspectives are contextualized within a discussion of the imagination as a mechanism for inventing into being. This research emphasizes self-reflexivity as a method for establishing trustworthiness. This MA thesis finds that participants imagine generative AI and one another in both similar and contrasting (and occasionally contradictory) ways. In that context, the thesis ends by discussing misconceptions and mistrust among and between faculty and students as a potential cause for differences between what participants anticipate and what they desire for the future of their field.