60-Second SoTL

Re-thinking SoTL for the Age of GenAI

Episode Summary

How might the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning evolve when humans and generative AI are deeply entangled? This episode highlights an open-access article that offers five propositions, each paired with GenAI prompts, to help SoTL scholars experiment with context-aware approaches to inquiry in AI-enhanced learning environments.

Episode Notes

See our full episode notes at: https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/re-thinking-sotl-for-the-age-of-genai/

How might the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning evolve when humans and generative AI are deeply entangled? This episode highlights an open-access article that offers five propositions, each paired with GenAI prompts, to help SoTL scholars experiment with context-aware approaches to inquiry in AI-enhanced learning environments. Read the full article:

Mills, Jennie, Tina Beynen, Ivy Chia Sook May, Rachel Fitzgerald, Kimberly A. Hall, Evelyn Lai, Jon Mason, and Samantha Newell. 2025. “Re-Thinking SoTL for the Age of GenAI: Diffracted, Entangled, and Human.” Teaching and Learning Inquiry 13 (October): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.13.49.

This episode was hosted, edited, and produced by Jessie L. Moore, Director of the Center for Engaged Learning and Professor of Professional Writing & Rhetoric.

60-Second SoTL is produced by the Center for Engaged Learning at Elon University.

Music: “Cryptic” by AudioCoffee.

Image in episode art is by DC Studio on Freepik.

Episode Transcription

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0:09

Jessie L. Moore:

How might the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning evolve when humans and generative AI are deeply entangled?That’s the focus of this week’s 60-second SoTL from Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning. I’m Jessie Moore. 

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0:26

In “Re-thinking SoTL for the Age of GenAI: Diffracted, Entangled, and Human,” Jennie Mills, Tina Beynen, Ivy Chia Sook May, Rachel Fitzgerald, Kimberly A. Hall, Evelyn Lai, Jon Mason, and Samantha Newell argue that GenAI isn’t just another educational tool. Large language models are reshaping how we think, learn, and demonstrate knowledge, creating a “wicked problem” for higher education and for SoTL. Their article appears in Teaching & Learning Inquiry, a diamond open-access journal.

0:57

The authors turn to posthumanist theory and the concept of diffraction to reframe SoTL as a dynamic, entangled practice rather than a detached study of teaching and learning. Diffractive GenAI SoTL invites educators to see humans and technologies as co-creating learning environments and futures. 

1:15

Drawing on posthumanist ideas and the concept of diffraction, the authors propose a “diffractive GenAI SoTL” that helps educators:

• Move beyond simple reflection to embrace complexity, uncertainty, and “wicked problems;”
• Treat GenAI as an entangled collaborator, not just a neutral tool or a threat;
• Center human agency, affect, and ethics while acknowledging human–AI co-creation;
• Rethink methodology, positionality, and what “counts” as evidence in SoTL; and
• Explore multiple futures for teaching, assessment, and curriculum in AI-rich contexts.

1:53

The article offers five propositions, each paired with GenAI prompts, to help educators and SoTL scholars experiment with new, context-aware approaches to inquiry in AI-enhanced learning environments.

Their propositions include:

1. design SoTL through diffraction across disciplines and methods; 
2. recognize researcher positionality as both fixed and evolving; 
3. attend to the complex material interactions between humans and GenAI;
4. engage the emotional and ethical dimensions of AI use; and 
5. imagine multiple possible futures where GenAI is an “always-already” collaborator.

Together, these propositions move SoTL beyond reflection toward generative, critically informed inquiry that centers human agency while acknowledging human–nonhuman entanglement.

2:44

To learn more about this practical and theoretical guide to rethinking SoTL in the age of GenAI, visit our show notes for a link to the open access article.

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2:57

Jessie Moore:

Join us for our next episode of 60-second SoTL from Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning for another snapshot of recent scholarship of teaching and learning. Learn more about the Center at www.CenterForEngagedLearning.org.

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