My Academic Work

My academic work explores how emerging technologies, particularly generative artificial intelligence, reshape teaching, learning, research, and assessment. Across my scholarship, I approach AI literacy as a socio-cultural construct, shaped by disciplinary knowledge, pedagogical values, and institutional contexts. From this perspective, I argue that meaningful engagement with AI requires sustained attention to authorship, ethics, assessment design, and the conditions under which learning and knowledge production occur.

My recent book, The AI Turn in Academic Research (2025), co-authored with Dr. Johanathan Woodworth and published by Mount Saint Vincent University, examines how generative AI is changing academic research practices. The book argues for a research-informed and practice-oriented approach to AI use, one that keeps questions of integrity, responsibility, and methodological transparency central to scholarly work.

Building on this work, I am currently completing a book manuscript with Dr. Woodworth titled The BEARA Framework for Pedagogical Integration, under contract with Toronto University Press. This book introduces a structured framework designed to support pedagogically grounded and ethically responsible AI integration across educational contexts. Alongside this project, we are also developing a forthcoming book focused on AI-enabled assessment, addressing one of the most pressing challenges facing educators and institutions today.

My scholarship also includes peer-reviewed book chapters that reflect both my current focus on AI and earlier work in critical literacy and research ethics. Recent work includes a chapter under review on rethinking assessment in the age of generative AI for an edited volume published by World Scientific. Earlier chapters, published with UBC Press and Emerald Publishing, examine ethical issues in participatory visual research with youth, particularly in contexts involving refugee experience. While my research focus has evolved, this earlier work continues to inform my attention to ethics, power, and representation in contemporary AI debates.

In addition to published and in-press work, I am actively involved in several collaborative research projects currently in development. These include studies examining the robustness of the BEARA framework across cultural and institutional contexts, institutional AI policy frameworks in higher education, and AI-focused professional development models for educators. These projects reflect my ongoing commitment to research that connects theory, policy, and classroom practice.

Alongside my scholarly publications, I have authored practitioner-oriented books aimed at supporting educators working directly with AI in classrooms. Teaching with AI: Practical Strategies to Integrate AI in the Classroom and ChatGPT for Teachers: Mastering the Skill of Crafting Effective Prompts translate research and pedagogical principles into accessible guidance for teachers navigating rapidly changing instructional landscapes.

Selected Publications

The publications below represent key strands of my scholarly work, spanning books, book chapters, and research papers on AI literacy, pedagogy, and educational research.

Books

  • Kharbach, M., & Woodworth, J. (2025). The AI turn in academic research: A practical guide to research tools and methods. Mount Saint Vincent University. https://doi.org/10.61756/KYQU7678
  • Kharbach, M., & Woodworth, J. (in review). The BEARA framework for pedagogical integration. Toronto University Press.
  • Kharbach, M., & Woodworth, J. (Eds.). (manuscript in preparation). Critical AI literacy.
  • Kharbach, M. (2025). Teaching with AI: Practical strategies to integrate AI in the classroom. Self-published.
  • Kharbach, M. (2024). ChatGPT for teachers: Mastering the skill of crafting effective prompts. Self-published.

Book Chapters

  • Kharbach, M. (in review). Rethinking assessment in the age of generative AI. In N. Sockalingam, T. Menkhoff, & R. Tan (Eds.), Gen AI for higher education. World Scientific Publishing.
  • Brigham, S., & Kharbach, M. (2025). Participatory photography and youth with refugee experience. In M. Ali (Ed.), Ethical issues in research with refugee children and youth. UBC Press. https://www.ubcpress.ca/research-with-refugee-children-and-families
  • Kharbach, M. (2022). Meditative inquiry and critical discourse analysis: A hybrid approach for doing educational research. In A. Kumar (Ed.), Engaging with meditative inquiry in teaching, learning, and research: Realizing transformative potentials in diverse contexts. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003128441
  • Brigham, S., & Kharbach, M. (2020). Ethical issues in a participatory photography research project involving youth with refugee experience. In S. Dodd (Ed.), Ethics and integrity in visual research methods (pp. 153–170). Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2398-601820200000005014

Research Papers

  • Kharbach, M. (2025). AI in higher ed: From panic to possibility. Higher Education Digest. https://www.highereducationdigest.com/ai-in-higher-ed-from-panic-to-possibility/
  • Kharbach, M. (in review). Developing course-level AI use policies in higher education: From principles to practice. Innovations in Learning: A SUNY-Focused Teaching Journal.
  • Woodworth, J., Beely, E., & Kharbach, M. (manuscript in preparation). Replicating the BEARA framework in a Saudi higher education context: Examining robustness across culture and course content.
  • Woodworth, J., Sawchuk, S., Ballantyne, E., & Kharbach, M. (manuscript in preparation). Institutional AI policy frameworks in higher education.
  • Woodworth, J., Sawchuk, S., Ballantyne, E., & Kharbach, M. (manuscript in preparation). AI-focused professional development frameworks in higher education.
  • Kumar, A., Brigham, S., Kharbach, M., Downey, A., Lemieux, A., Wells-Hopey, D., Shahidi, M., & Card, A. (2021). Curriculum in international contexts: A complicated conversation. Transnational Curriculum Inquiry, 18(2). https://doi.org/10.14288/tci.v18i2.196880
  • Kharbach, M. (2020). Exploring the methodological affordances of critical discourse analysis in social research. Antistasis, 10(1), 85–99. https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/antistasis/article/view/30419
  • Kharbach, M. (2020). Understanding the ideological construction of the Gulf crisis in Arab media discourse: A critical discourse analytic study of the headlines of Al Arabiya English and Al Jazeera English. Discourse & Communication, 14(5), 447–465. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481320917576
Scroll to Top