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“Here I Am”: Reclaiming Moral Presence in a ...

Written by: Gila Hammer Furnes

Abstract: In a culture where children witness cruelty, grief, and injustice on their screens before breakfast—often without an adult to hold what they have seen—this essay reclaims moral presence as a pedagogical condition. Drawing on Lévinas, Buber, Todd, Biesta, and Ellsworth, it introduces Hineni—the Hebrew phrase meaning “Here I am”—as an ethical stance of availability that precedes instruction, autonomy, or deliberation. In contrast to dominant models of moral development that locate ethics in reason, regulation, or curriculum, Hineni reconfigures the child not as a future ethical subject, but as one already present in their trembling response to the world. Situated at the intersection of digital culture, ethical phenomenology, and critical pedagogy, the essay resists calls for digital resilience and instead frames education as a space of mutual presence. It argues that pedagogy must not merely protect the child, but stay with them—in their silence, uncertainty, and proximity to harm. To teach ethically in a digital age, it suggests, is not to command response, but to echo it.

Keywords:Hineni, moral education, digital culture, ethical responsiveness, critical pedagogy

Image: "Hineni" by Howard J Duncan is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

“Here I Am”: Reclaiming Moral Presence in a Culture of Digital Noise

higher education

Against the Uncritical Adoption of ‘AI’ Technologies in Academia

Against the Uncritical Adoption of ‘AI’ Technologies in Academia

Written by: Olivia Guest, Marcela Suarez, Barbara C. N. Müller, Edwin van Meerkerk, Arnoud Oude Groote Beverborg, Ronald de Haan, Andrea Reyes Elizondo, Mark Blokpoel, Natalia Scharfenberg, Annelies Kleinherenbrink, Ileana Camerino, Marieke Woensdregt, Dagmar Monett, Jed Brown, Lucy Avraamidou, Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez, Felienne Hermans, and Iris van Rooij

Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) companies and their rhetoric infringe on academia in harmful ways, mirroring past uncritical acceptance of industry logics, such as those of tobacco and petroleum. In this position piece, we tease apart and explain why phrases like ‘generative AI’ impede scholarly discussion because by design these expressions are used to dazzle and sidestep scrutiny. Furthermore, we contend with the AI industry’s logics to enable rejecting frames such as: that we must embrace the future, that this hype cycle is unique, that anthropomorphism and circular reasoning hold water when discussing AI systems, and that students are now all cheating or all need to use AI. To these ends, we expound on why universities must take their role seriously to a) counter the AI industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. For each point we raise, we include pointers to relevant work to further inform and convince our colleagues.

Keywords: higher education, artificial intelligence, AI hype, digital technology, critical AI literacy, education policy, scientific integrity

Mapping Belonging in Higher Education: Tracing Relationality Across Digital and Place-Based Literature

Mapping Belonging in Higher Education: Tracing Relationality Across Digital and Place-Based Literature

Written by: Bonnie Stewart & Thu Thi Kim Le

Abstract: What does belonging mean in a learning context, in this globalized digital age? What practices – what combination of pedagogical, institutional, and cultural elements – can help foster an individual’s sense of being part of something bigger than themselves, educationally? And how do socio-material principles and approaches of digital belonging align with the literature on belonging as a placed and relational experience? The article explores how belonging as a signifier is shifting in contemporary Higher Education, risking weaponization and neutralization of the term. The paper offers a critical theorization of the terms belonging and State of Belonging (SoB), synthesizing how the concepts are framed and understood across axes of identity, culture, disciplinary field, and learning modality, through multiple theoretical lenses. The aim of the paper is to make visible the various ways in which SoB operates in the complex digital environments of higher education, with emphasis on how the concept consistently refers to relational connections and power relations, no matter the context.

Keywords: belonging, state of belonging, higher education, digital learning, participatory learning, place-based learning, topologies, relationality, weaponization