Towards a pedagogy of negotiation: EAP teachers rethinking university teaching and assessment in the digital age

This article examines how English for Academic Purposes practitioners conceptualise the role of generative artificial intelligence within contemporary assessment practices in higher education. Drawing on 31 written reflections from teachers working across UK and international university contexts, the article uses metaphor analysis to explore how educators make sense of a rapidly shifting pedagogical landscape. The analysis reveals four interrelated conceptualisations through which teachers are negotiating their relationship with generative artificial intelligence: artificial intelligence as assistant or collaborator; artificial intelligence as invisibly embedded and increasingly inseparable from academic systems; artificial intelligence as a double-edged sword characterised by both affordances and risks; and artificial intelligence as a catalyst for rethinking authorship, assessment and the boundaries of pedagogical responsibility. Across these themes, negotiation emerges as a central construct, reflecting an ongoing attempt to balance technological possibilities with human oversight, ethical considerations and professional identity. The findings are interpreted through a lineage of educational technology theory, including Laurillard’s conversational framework, the technological pedagogical content knowledge model and more recent work on the role of generative artificial intelligence in higher education. The article argues that English for Academic Purposes teachers are not simply reacting to technological disruption but actively redesigning particular aspects of their practice and reasserting pedagogical agency. The article concludes by highlighting implications for institutional policy, assessment design and the very future of English for Academic Purposes, suggesting that sustainable, realistic integration of GenAI will depend on dialogic, ethically informed negotiation, rather than prohibition or uncritical adoption.