Articles
2 articlesFormal research and academic writing.
Aggregated Cultural Positioning: Why AI Cannot Serve as a Sociocultural Mediator in Education
Zia Hassan
As artificial intelligence tools proliferate in educational settings, proponents argue they will democratize access to personalized learning and narrow achievement gaps. This paper argues the opposite. Drawing on Vygotsky, Freire, and Gee, it contends that AI is structurally incapable of serving as a sociocultural mediator in education because large language models produce what this paper terms aggregated cultural positioning – statistically weighted outputs that reflect dominant cultural norms while presenting them as neutral. Deploying AI as a stand-in for culturally positioned human others does not expand access to genuine learning; it removes the mechanism by which genuine learning occurs, at greatest cost to the students the technology claims to serve. A framework centered on culturally situated dialogue, productive friction, and positioned feedback is proposed as a response.
Friction and Coordination in Schooling: Transactional Teaching, Relational Work, and the Limits of Educational Efficiency
Zia Hassan
This paper argues that the future of equitable education depends on friction. I define friction as the experience of working through difficulty without immediate aid, involving time, presence, responsiveness, and relational investment. Through a synthesis of interactional, organizational, and sociological perspectives, I develop a conceptual model of transactional versus relational teaching, arguing that relational teaching generates productive friction that interrupts the smooth reproduction of inequality.