Date of Award
Spring 2026
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
College
College of Education
First Advisor
Melissa Bradford
Abstract
The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into higher education has outpaced sustained inquiry into its pedagogical, ethical, and relational implications, particularly within teaching-centered institutions. This qualitative study examined how community college faculty in the Chicagoland area perceived, navigated, and actively co-constructed the role of AI in human learning. Grounded in a constructivist epistemology, the study integrated Constructivist Grounded Theory and Participatory Action Research to position faculty not as passive respondents to technological change but as co-intelligent agents engaged in dialogic meaning-making. A two-phase interview design was implemented in which faculty first participated in semi-structured interviews and subsequently engaged in a reverse-interview process, generating reciprocal dialogue about AI’s evolving presence in their classrooms. Data were analyzed through iterative coding and situational mapping to identify the human, nonhuman, institutional, and discursive forces shaping faculty sensemaking. Findings revealed curiosity as a central organizing principle through which faculty interpreted AI’s affordances and constraints. Participants navigated ethical tensions, institutional ambiguity, and shifting pedagogical norms by engaging AI as a relational presence requiring transparency, trust, and intentional dialogue rather than as a tool of automation or surveillance. The study advances a critical qualitative bricolage framework—articulated as “Curiosity as Method, Cabinet as Theory”—as a participatory model for localized AI inquiry. In doing so, the study demonstrates how participatory qualitative inquiry can serve as a methodological counterweight to technocratic AI adoption.
Copyright
Copyright © 2026 Chadd W Engel
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Engel, Chadd W., "Curiosity as Method, Cabinet as Theory: A Participatory Design for Localized AI Inquiry Demonstrated Through Community College Faculty in Chicagoland" (2026). Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University. 76.
https://via.library.depaul.edu/theses-dissertations/76