Conference Agenda

This Dream Team session invites qualitative researchers into a critical, collaborative exploration of the methodological, ethical, and epistemological tensions which arise when generative AI enters the qualitative research space. As a team working in inclusive education, we have been experimenting with Microsoft Copilot to support a Critical Discourse Analysis of autism-related briefings by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (April 2025) and Donald Trump (September 2025). These texts, situated within the Trump administration’s broader discourse on autism, offer a politically charged site for interrogating how language constructs disability, authority, and inclusion.

Our experiment was driven by methodological curiosity. Could AI meaningfully support interpretive analysis? What happens when we delegate parts of our analytical labour to a machine trained on probabilistic patterns rather than lived experience, theory or context? What emerged was a series of epistemic ruptures. Despite detailed prompts, Copilot routinely omitted key theoretical framings, such as the medical model of disability, and failed to engage with contradiction, ambiguity, and silence. It flattened nuance, misrepresented ideological tensions, and struggled to synthesise commentary meaningfully. These gaps were not incidental; they revealed the limits of AI’s capacity to “read” texts critically, especially when those texts are ideologically saturated and socially situated.

In response, we refined our approach: breaking down tasks, embedding theoretical cues, and manually editing outputs. This improved coherence but underscored a deeper concern about AI’s tendency to reproduce dominant narratives, erase marginalised voices and bypass the interpretive reflexivity which sits at the heart of qualitative inquiry. Our experience raised urgent questions about authorship, agency and the politics of automation in research.

This Dream Team session is not a demonstration of best practice, but an invitation to think together about the risks, contradictions, and possibilities of AI-assisted qualitative research. We will begin by briefly sharing our process and reflections, including examples of AI-generated outputs and the gaps we encountered. From there, we will facilitate a series of interactive exercises and discussions designed to surface collective insights, discomforts, and provocations.

Together, we will explore questions such as:

• What does AI routinely miss in qualitative analysis, and what does that reveal about our own methodological assumptions?

• How do we ensure rigour, reflexivity and ethical integrity when using generative tools?

• Can AI ever “understand” context, ideology, or lived experience, or is its role better framed as scaffolding rather than analysis?

• What kinds of qualitative work are most (or least) suited to AI assistance?

• How might we teach students to use AI critically, rather than uncritically?

• What does it mean to co-author with a machine, and how do we navigate questions of voice, power and representation?

We will also invite participants to experiment with live prompting, critique AI outputs and reflect on their own experiences (or hesitations) with AI in research, teaching and supervision. The session will be structured to allow for small-group dialogue, collective note-taking and the emergence of shared themes or provocations.

Our hope is that this Dream Team will forge a writing collective which valorises the outcome of the session through a joint publication, blog series or methodological manifesto. We are particularly interested in capturing the tensions and creative possibilities which arise when qualitative researchers engage critically with generative tools, especially in fields such as inclusive education, where language is never neutral.

This session is not about technological mastery, but about methodological vulnerability, critical reflexivity and the politics of knowledge production in an era of automation. Whether you are experimenting with AI, resisting its use or simply curious about its implications, we welcome you to join us in thinking (and dreaming) together.