Futures and Critical AI Literacies : Resisting inevitability narratives through creative methods and critical pedagogy

What methods can foster critical and enduring literacies about tech-intensive futures? With the term “critical literacies,” we refer to forms of intervention grounded in critical theory and holding a “better futures” orientation, whether in relation to media, algorithmic, data or AI-based systems. The past decade has witnessed a groundswell of initiatives among practitioners across domainsto improve critical literacies through creative engagement techniques, focused on different sociotechnical systems and processes. However, these efforts-- to shift from fleeting to more sustained literacies that promote action, resistance, and change-- are continuously thwarted by the persuasive power of Big Tech, the design and seamless ease of technical interfaces, and the hegemonic acceptance of futures that seem “determined” by inevitable forces beyond individuals’ or communities’ controls. The most recent case in point is the struggle of educational institutions to respond to GenAI in ways that effectively resist tech-driven solutionism or grand promises of greater educational futures through AI.In this combined format panel, accepted contributors present examples of cutting edge approaches, experiential practices, narratives of intervention, ongoing creative experiments, or failures and challenges related to the development of critical literacies from differing disciplinary perspectives.Panel(s) will be followed by a workshop on workshopping, where participants are invited to collaboratively explore methods in action by selecting among three workshops, each critical literacies through different critical pedagogy-informed techniques, including: 1) speculative future-oriented design thinking; 2) data walking, and 3) autoethnographic situational mapping. As they are enacted, workshops are also discussed at a meta level as facilitators and participants ‘think aloud’ about choices for adjusting techniques in situ. Participants are invited to reflect on workshop best practices by considering projects wherein they want to develop workshops, or challenges they want to tackle in existing workshops. Workshop facilitators have longstanding expertise in workshop facilitation and critical pedagogy techniques.