Sensing Ethics in Postdigital Future Classrooms

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce and develop the concept of ‘sensing ethics’ as a relational approach to thinking about postdigital future classrooms that is informed by our material realities, social and institutional structures, and our responsibilities as educators towards our students. A postdigital lens on ethics emphasises the importance of relationships and interconnectedness in ethical decision-making, moving away from a focus on individual autonomy. It considers how actions affect relationships between humans and non-humans. This perspective moves beyond rule-based ethics, and towards an approach that is more relational, situated, and decentralised. We explore sensing ethics through three examples drawing on the theory of practice architectures. We analyse these examples through the entangled ‘doings’, ‘sayings’, and ‘relatings’ to unpack the complexities emerging in how educators and students enact sensing ethics and how ethics materialises in their human and non-human relationships. Sensing ethics does not require a fixed definition or definitive solutions; rather, it is a proactive and intentional practice situated in the present that shapes the near future of postdigital future classrooms.