Abstract
This study examines how artificial intelligence (AI) is getting informally incorporated into India’s higher education system, with a particular emphasis on the digital divide and social hierarchies among college students. To investigate how students from various socioeconomic, linguistic, and gendered backgrounds access, use, and interpret AI-driven instructional tools, the study recruited student participants from two colleges affiliated with the University of Calcutta: one situated in a semi-rural area and the other located in the city center. The study investigates the unequal effects of AI on marginalized groups, such as women, lower-caste communities, and rural migrants, who frequently encounter structural obstacles in obtaining technology and high-quality education, through interviews with 40 students (20 from each college). This research examines some significant concerns, including whether the use of AI in education supports or undermines established power structures, such as the predominance of elite institutions and English-medium instruction, how underprivileged students navigate AI-powered learning systems, and whether this digital divide reproduces the same gap in their relation to the socio-cultural capital. An attempt has also been made to assess whether these experiences mirror larger social injustices through the lens of gendered access, which investigates how gender norms affect women’s involvement in AI-integrated learning. With AI-integrated learning yet to be formally included in the curriculum, and with skewed and informal access and application of this groundbreaking technology in the backdrop, this study provides an insight to encounter systemic obstacles like socio-economic disparities, linguistic exclusion, and gendered access, to ensure an inclusive AI-powered learning system.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, DIGITAL DIVIDE, SOCIAL HIERARCHIES, INDIAN EDUCATION, MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES
