Remaining human in AI-shaped writing education: Writing teacher expertise, judgment, and care in higher education contexts
Organizer
Mayumi Fujioka, Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan
Presenters
Mayumi Fujioka, Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan
Chiaki Baba, Teikyo University of Science, Japan
Ryuichi Sato, Kyoto University, Japan
Madoka Kawano, Meiji University, Japan
Naoya Shibata, Osaka Kyoiku University, Japan
Abstract
Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) have profoundly reshaped the environments in which second language (L2) writing is taught and learned. AI-mediated tools are now routinely involved in writing processes, feedback practices, assessment, and instructional design, creating new possibilities as well as new tensions for writing teachers. Much of the emerging discussion has focused on how AI can support writing instruction or enhance efficiency. Far less attention, however, has been paid to what these changes mean for writing teachers’ professional expertise as a human, relational, and situated practice.
This invited colloquium addresses this gap by foregrounding the humanity of writing teachers as it is lived, strained, and negotiated in everyday teaching under AI-shaped conditions. Rather than treating expertise as a stable set of skills or technical knowledge that teachers either possess or lack, the colloquium conceptualizes expertise as a fundamentally human responsibility as well as a resource—one enacted through judgment, care, ethical accountability, and continual negotiation within institutional and pedagogical constraints. From this perspective, AI does not simply add new tools to teachers’ repertoire; it reshapes the moral and professional terrain of writing instruction by intensifying existing asymmetries, exposing structural limitations, and altering the conditions under which teachers are expected to exercise judgment, sustain relationships with learners, and take responsibility for decisions they do not always control.
Across higher education contexts—illustrated in this colloquium through the case of Japanese universities—writing teacher expertise emerges at the intersection of uneven student preparation, institutional designs that marginalize writing expertise, disciplinary differences in beliefs about writing, and employment structures that unevenly distribute authority and responsibility. In such environments, the presence of AI does not resolve long-standing tensions in writing instruction. Instead, it renders visible forms of expertise that are often taken for granted, undervalued, or structurally constrained, while simultaneously increasing expectations placed on teachers.
The five presentations in this colloquium examine how writing teacher expertise is reconfigured at multiple, interconnected levels: theoretical, pedagogical, institutional, organizational, and personal. Together, they foreground the humanity of writing teachers by attending to the interpretive, ethical, and affective dimensions of their work—dimensions that cannot be reduced to technological function, instructional efficiency, or tool mastery. By situating AI as a condition rather than a solution, this colloquium addresses pressing questions about how L2 writing can remain a meaningful human practice, and how writing teachers can remain professionally and ethically human, in increasingly AI-shaped educational environments.
Presentation 1: Reconsidering Writing Teacher Expertise in the Age of AI: A Conceptual Perspective
Mayumi Fujioka, Osaka Metropolitan University, Japan
This presentation provides a conceptual foundation for the colloquium by revisiting how writing teacher expertise has been theorized in L2 writing research and examining how these discussions need to be reconsidered in the age of AI. Prior scholarship has emphasized notions such as adaptive expertise, professional judgment, and teacher learning, often framing expertise as the capacity to respond flexibly to pedagogical complexity. However, these discussions have rarely addressed how technological conditions reshape the very contexts in which such expertise is enacted.
Drawing on key theoretical debates on L2 writing teacher expertise (e.g., Lee, 2025; Seloni, 2022), this presentation argues that writing teacher expertise should not be understood primarily as technical competence or tool-related knowledge, but as a form of human judgment exercised under conditions of uncertainty, responsibility, and ethical tension. By situating AI within these conceptual discussions, the presentation reframes expertise as a relational and moral practice rather than a purely instrumental one. This perspective establishes a conceptual anchor for the colloquium, clarifying what is at stake when the humanity of writing teachers is foregrounded in AI-influenced writing environments.
Presentation 2: Teaching Remedial Writers with AI: Expertise as Care, Judgment, and Pedagogical Relationship
Chiaki Baba, Teikyo University of Science, Japan
Focusing on remedial writing contexts, this presentation examines how writing teacher expertise is enacted when students lack basic understandings of what writing is and how it works. In such contexts, the introduction of AI poses particular challenges: students may delegate writing entirely to AI systems, disengaging from learning processes, authorial responsibility, and reader awareness. Writing teachers are thus required to make complex pedagogical and ethical judgments that extend beyond instructional technique.
Drawing on experiences teaching remedial university students, this presentation conceptualizes expertise as a form of care-oriented practice. It highlights how teachers build rapport, foster a sense of audience, and sustain learner engagement under conditions of profound asymmetry in knowledge and confidence. Rather than framing AI use as a problem of regulation or control, the presentation argues that writing teacher expertise in remedial contexts lies in sustaining pedagogical relationships that make meaningful writing possible in the first place. In doing so, it foregrounds the emotional and relational labor that underpins humanity in writing instruction.
Presentation 3: Institutional Constraints on Writing Teacher Expertise in Japanese Higher Education
Ryuichi Sato, Kyoto University, Japan
This presentation shifts the focus from individual classrooms to institutional structures that shape writing instruction. Drawing on a large-scale analysis of over 1,400 university syllabi, it demonstrates that EFL writing instruction in Japanese higher education remains predominantly product-oriented, textbook-driven, and minimally genre-based. These patterns reflect institutional design rather than individual teacher beliefs, systematically marginalizing writing expertise while simultaneously expanding expectations placed on instructors.
The presentation argues that efforts to integrate AI into writing instruction cannot be understood apart from these structural constraints. Even when teachers recognize the pedagogical potential of AI, institutional frameworks often limit how professional judgment can be exercised in practice. By foregrounding the institutional conditions under which writing is taught, this presentation reframes writing teacher expertise as something that is not merely enacted—or not enacted—by individuals but enabled or constrained by educational systems. AI, in this sense, functions as a lens that makes these constraints newly visible.
Presentation 4: Managing Disciplinary Difference: Writing Expertise, AI, and Organizational Mediation
Madoka Kawano, Meiji University, Japan
This presentation examines writing teacher expertise from the perspective of organizational and disciplinary mediation. Drawing on experiences coordinating EAP/ESP courses within a science faculty, it explores how AI has intensified existing differences in beliefs about writing among instructors from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Conflicting assumptions about the purposes of writing, appropriate instructional approaches, and the role of AI often generate tension and uncertainty at the program level.
Through concrete cases of syllabus coordination and policy development, the presentation conceptualizes expertise as a form of mediating and managerial practice. Writing teacher expertise, from this perspective, involves aligning divergent beliefs, translating across disciplinary cultures, and sustaining instructional coherence among stakeholders. By highlighting these often-invisible forms of labor, the presentation expands conventional understandings of writing expertise beyond classroom teaching to include professional judgement and organizational responsibility.
Presentation 5: Writing Teacher Expertise from the Margins: An Autoethnographic Perspective
Naoya Shibata, Osaka Kyoiku University, Japan
The final presentation foregrounds writing teacher expertise as it is lived under conditions of limited authority and structural precarity. Drawing on autoethnographic reflection as an instructor, it examines how writing teachers enact professional judgment, ethical responsibility, and care while operating within institutional systems that restrict control over course design, assessment policy, and AI-related decision-making.
By narrating moments of pedagogical decision-making, emotional labor, and ethical tension, this presentation highlights the uneven distribution of authority and responsibility in writing instruction. It argues that understanding the humanity of writing teachers in the age of AI requires attending not only to pedagogy and policy, but also to the labor conditions under which expertise is recognized, constrained, or rendered invisible. This perspective brings the colloquium full circle by grounding conceptual and institutional discussions in lived professional experience.
About the Presenters
Mayumi Fujioka is a professor of English in the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Sciences, and Global Education at Osaka Metropolitan University. She holds a PhD in Foreign Language Education. Her research interests include English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and L2 writing teacher development. She is currently working on connecting undergraduate and graduate EAP writing instruction. Her publications have appeared in Journal of Second Language Writing, as well as international edited collections on graduate-level academic literacy practices.
Chiaki Baba is a professor at the Department of School Education, Teikyo University of Science, Japan. She has a Ph.D. in Education. Her research interests include teaching novice EFL learners, EFL writing and its assessment, and English teacher training for novice university students. Her articles have been published in several journals and books. She is currently a Vice-President of the Japan Association of College English Teachers (JACET).
Ryuichi Sato is a Program-Specific Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, Kyoto University, Japan. He holds a Ph.D. in English and works at the intersection of second language writing, English-medium instruction (EMI), and writing pedagogy in higher education. His research examines how institutional design, curricular structures, and assessment practices shape teachers’ professional judgment and learners’ engagement in L2 writing contexts. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Asia TEFL as well as a chapter in an international edited volume on EMI education.
Madoka Kawano is a professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences, Meiji University, Japan. Her research examines L2 writing pedagogy from the perspectives of academic literacy and critical thinking skills, with a particular focus on EAP/ESP for science students. She has developed instructional materials for pharmacy students and STEM majors and has conducted collaborative research on L2 writing instruction, poster presentations, material evaluation, and curriculum design at secondary and tertiary education.
Naoya Shibata is a specially-appointed associate professor at Osaka Kyoiku University, Japan. He holds an Ed.D. in TESOL and researches second language writing, content and language integrated learning, materials development, and teacher training. He received the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) Early Career Excellence Award in 2024 and the Michele Steele Best of JALT Award in 2025. His publications have appeared in the Language Teaching, CALL-EJ, Folio, and other journals and books.
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