From confidence to disillusionment: Academic authority, generational blindness, and the gamification of educational research

This paper examines the structural conditions under which academic publications on educational technology are produced by researchers who possess neither pedagogical training nor classroom experience, and the consequences this has for learners who become test subjects of models that no practitioner would endorse. Taking two closely related studies on mobile-based gamification learning published in 2026 as a case study -- both grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and both co-authored by a retired professor of Hispanic philology and medieval studies with no background in pedagogy, psychometrics, or game design -- the paper demonstrates how academic authority is transferred across disciplinary boundaries without accountability. The analysis reveals that both studies measure acceptance rather than learning, confuse enjoyment with education, and deploy the language of Sustainable Development Goal 4 as legitimation rhetoric rather than as a genuine quality criterion. By examining the discourse of these publications, the co-authorship patterns, and the broader generational dynamics at play, this paper argues that the uncritical proliferation of gamification research constitutes a form of institutional negligence whose consequences fall on the very students the research claims to serve. The paper concludes by proposing that academic publishing in education must be held to standards of disciplinary competence, practical experience, and ethical scrutiny that are currently absent from the peer-review process in this field.