New Call for Papers for the next issue of ESS Journal (Vol. 37, No/2025) (July-December)

2025-06-13

New call for proposals for the thematic dossier of volume 37, number 2 (2025) of the ESS journal

The Educación Superior y Sociedad (ESS) journal of the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO IESALC) invites submissions for its thematic dossier:

“Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) in teaching and research: best practices, challenges and prospects”

Generative artificial intelligence (GAI), popularised by this language model, has emerged as a transformative tool in higher education and an ally in advancing human knowledge. The launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in November 2022 represented a disruption in multiple areas, such as professional, social, and academic life. More than two years later, we are talking about various companies competing to be an option in content generation, such as Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta AI, and DeepSeek, which enrich the educational and research process.

In Latin America, implementing this technology offers unique opportunities and challenges that require detailed exploration, from its ethical use, personalised learning, and collaborative research to copyright and intellectual property, the inequality gap, and the risks of substitution.

In this context, it is extremely important to explore and discuss the strategies through which universities and educational systems in the region are facing this challenge, whether by adapting their structures, institutional policies, and academic practices, or by resisting or ignoring these technologies, considering that the focus on inclusivity is not only present in ethical dilemmas but also in the different thematic lines proposed. Por lo antes señalado, el dossier comprenderá los siguientes ejes-líneas de trabajo:

Thematic lines

  • Impact of GAI on teaching

The analysis, reflection, and documentation of experiences on how generative artificial intelligence is transforming teaching and learning processes is an increasingly relevant topic in the process of integrating different tools into teaching (Sandoval et al., 2024; Marqués, 2025; Al Abri, 2025). To this end, it is imperative to explore both the benefits and challenges associated with the use of GAI-based tools in the educational context, particularly at the higher education level and in its various modalities (face-to-face, virtual, and hybrid). Likewise, research on the redesign of pedagogical practices, curricular adaptation, the role of teachers with these technologies, and case studies or innovative proposals that incorporate GAI into teaching practice will be evaluated.

  • Impact of GAI on learning

Students and teachers alike are increasingly using GAI in the classroom (Sandoval et al., 2024). It is essential to understand how universities are adapting to promote meaningful learning (Beak and Wilson, 2024), as the potential of GAI is maximised when there is pedagogical guidance that encourages reflective use, information verification, and the development of higher cognitive skills. Therefore, contributions will be accepted that address, from different perspectives, the role of AI in personalising learning, developing cognitive and metacognitive skills, student motivation, learning assessment, and knowledge construction in technology-mediated environments.

  • Impact of GAI on research

GAI has not only been adopted in educational processes, i.e., teaching and learning, but has also permeated various fields such as research, generating debates around research processes and knowledge generation, which are being affected and disrupted by AI applications, from the ownership of a generated ‘idea’ to the ‘originality’ of knowledge produced by an algorithm (Miao and Homes, 2024). Furthermore, GAI is transforming research methodologies, big data analysis, hypothesis generation, and academic writing (Beak and Wilson, 2024; Baytas and Ruediger, 2025). In this regard, it is necessary to explore the use of AI-based tools for information search and analysis, data processing, and scientific writing, as well as ethical issues related to authorship, academic integrity, and transparency.

  • Institutional policies and organisational changes

Universities are developing policies and structures to better integrate AI into their academic processes or else ignoring or resisting its use (An et al., 2025). On this topic, we welcome contributions reflecting on how prepared higher education institutions (HEIs) are for AI in areas such as the development of implementation strategies, ethical principles, governance, operability, literacy, teacher training, learning strategies, curriculum development, AI research, and policies on the use of AI in research (Digital Digital Council, 2025).

  • Ethical dilemmas and legal and environmental challenges in the use of AI

Plagiarism, intellectual property, copyright, the widening digital divide, and the replacement of labour by algorithms are challenges that must be addressed in depth by education systems and universities (Panke, 2025). It is also essential to reflect on the dimension of algorithmic transparency and bias in the data used to train GAI, as well as the privacy of students' and teachers' personal data (Baytas and Ruediger, 2025). Similarly, it is important to create spaces for debate on the environmental impact of AI, the level of awareness of this impact, and the knowledge or lack of knowledge on this subject among those who identify themselves as users (Dungo et al., 2025).

Empirical studies (scientific research), theoretical essays (in-depth), systematisations of experiences (based on scientific evidence), and state-of-the-art reviews (extensively documented) about the dossier are accepted.

The dossier will be organised by Carlos Iván Moreno Arellano (University of Guadalajara), Verónica Luna de la Luz (National Autonomous University of Mexico), Gabriela Navarro Espíritu (CETYS University), Rubén Juan Sebastián García Sánchez (University of Guadalajara) and Arianna Valentini (UNESCO IESALC).

As in previous issues, the journal keeps its general section open to receive articles presenting studies and research on a wide range of topics related to higher education in the region and its university institutions.

The deadline for submitting articles for the thematic dossier of the new issue of ESS is 26 October 2025.

All articles will be received through the platform of the Journal of Higher Education and Society (ESS) https://ess.iesalc.unesco.org/index.php/ess3/about/submissions, where the rules and formats for submission are available. Each article will also be subject to double-blind external peer review.

For more information, please write to ess-iesalc@unesco.org  

 

References

Al Abri, M., Al Mamari, A., & Al Marzouqi, Z. (2025). Exploring the implications of generative AI tools in teaching and learning practices. Journal of Education and E-Learning Research, 12(1), 31–41. DOI: 10.20448/jeelr.v12i1.6355

An, Y., Yu, J.H. & James, S. (2025). Investigating the higher education institutions’ guidelines and policies regarding the use of generative AI in teaching, learning, research, and administration. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 22, 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-025-00507-3

Baek, E. O. & Wilson, R. V. (2024). An Inquiry Into the Use of Generative AI and Its Implications in Education: Boon or Bane. International Journal of Adult Education and Technology (IJAET), 15(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJAET.349233

Baytas, C. & Ruediger, D. (2025). Making AI Generative for Higher Education: Adoption and Challenges Among Instructors and Researchers. Ithaka S+R. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.322677

Digital Education Council. (2025). Ten Dimension AI Readiness Framework. https://www.digitaleducationcouncil.com/post/ten-dimension-ai-readiness-framework#:~:text=The%20Digital%20Education%20Council%202025,with%20long%2Dterm%20institutional%20goals

Dungo, C. A. B., Beltran, Z. L. E., Declaro, B. C., Dela-Cruz, J. J. C., & Viray, R. U. (2025). Students’ level of awareness on the environmental implications of generative AI. Journal of Education in Science, Environment and Health (JESEH), 11(2), 93-107. https://doi.org/10.55549/jeseh.777  

Marquès-Donoso, A. (2025). Inteligencia artificial en la docencia universitaria: ¿un nuevo aliado? Revista de Investigación Aplicada y Experiencias Educativas, 52, 35-65. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=10195933

Panke, S. (2025). How Can (A)I Research This? An Autoethnographic Exploration of Generative AI in Research, Teaching and Instructional Design. Journal of Teacher Education, 76(3), 230-244. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224871251325065

Sandoval, M. A., Morales G. J., Vázquez, H., Huerta, J. y Filobello, U. A. (2024). El uso del prompt de ChatGPT como asistente en la educación. Revista Iberoamericana para la Investigación y el Desarrollo Educativo (RIDE). https://www.ride.org.mx/index.php/RIDE/article/view/1872/4973#info

Miao, F. & Holmes, W. (2024). Guía para el uso de IA generativa en educación e investigación. Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (UNESCO). https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000389227