Becoming-with GenAI: reconfiguring agency and authorship in science curriculum development

Abstract

Purpose This study investigates the entanglement of researcher’s agency and authorship in curriculum development mediated by generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). Despite growing enthusiasm for GenAI’s transformative potential, little is known about the process of becoming-with AI in the epistemic and ethical labor of design. Guided by the research question – what forms of agency and authorship emerge through the process of becoming-with AI in AI-mediated curriculum design? Design/methodology/approach Employing a hermeneutic autoethnographic methodology, the researcher documented a lived experience through iterative interactions with GenAI across curriculum planning, sequencing, mapping, alignment and implementation. Data sources included structured prompting protocols, reflective analytic memos and Photovoice artifacts capturing critical decision points in AI-assisted design. Findings Qualitative content analysis has revealed five configurations in curriculum work: GenAI as a mediator of curricular coherence, an architect of sequencing learning, a cartographer of curricular alignment, a curator of contextualized learning experiences and an orchestrator of aligned and active learning. Originality/value Findings indicate that agency and authorship are not diminished in AI-mediated contexts but reconstituted as distributed and ethically intensified practices. GenAI redistributes cognitive labor while amplifying the need for disciplined discernment in evaluating alignment, coherence and epistemic integrity. Curriculum development thus emerges as a negotiated sociotechnical practice in which professional judgment remains the locus of accountability.