Teaching and Critiquing Conceptualization and Operationalization in NLP

Vagrant Gautam

Teaching and Critiquing Conceptualization and Operationalization in NLP

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Abstract

NLP researchers regularly invoke abstract concepts like "interpretability," "bias," "reasoning," and "stereotypes," without defining them.Each subfield has a shared understanding or conceptualization of what these terms mean and how we should treat them, and this shared understanding is the basis on which operational decisions are made:Datasets are built to evaluate these concepts, metrics are proposed to quantify them, and claims are made about systems. But what do they mean, what _should_ they mean, and how should we measure them?I outline a seminar I created for students to explore these questions of conceptualization and operationalization, with an interdisciplinary reading list and an emphasis on discussion and critique.

Anthology ID:: 2026.teachingnlp-1.11
Volume:: Proceedings of the Seventh Workshop on Teaching Natural Language Processing (TeachNLP 2026)
Month:: March
Year:: 2026
Address:: Rabat, Morocco
Editors:: Matthias Aßenmacher, Laura Biester, Claudia Borg, György Kovács, Margot Mieskes, Sofia Serrano
Venues:: TeachingNLP | WS
SIG:
Publisher:: Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:: 69–77
Language:
URL:: https://aclanthology.org/2026.teachingnlp-1.11/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):: Vagrant Gautam. 2026. Teaching and Critiquing Conceptualization and Operationalization in NLP. In Proceedings of the Seventh Workshop on Teaching Natural Language Processing (TeachNLP 2026), pages 69–77, Rabat, Morocco. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):: Teaching and Critiquing Conceptualization and Operationalization in NLP (Gautam, TeachingNLP 2026)
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PDF:: https://aclanthology.org/2026.teachingnlp-1.11.pdf

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@inproceedings{gautam-2026-teaching-critiquing,
    title = "Teaching and Critiquing Conceptualization and Operationalization in {NLP}",
    author = "Gautam, Vagrant",
    editor = {A{\ss}enmacher, Matthias  and
      Biester, Laura  and
      Borg, Claudia  and
      Kov{\'a}cs, Gy{\"o}rgy  and
      Mieskes, Margot  and
      Serrano, Sofia},
    booktitle = "Proceedings of the Seventh Workshop on Teaching Natural Language Processing ({T}each{NLP} 2026)",
    month = mar,
    year = "2026",
    address = "Rabat, Morocco",
    publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
    url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.teachingnlp-1.11/",
    pages = "69--77",
    ISBN = "979-8-89176-375-3",
    abstract = "NLP researchers regularly invoke abstract concepts like ``interpretability,'' ``bias,'' ``reasoning,'' and ``stereotypes,'' without defining them.Each subfield has a shared understanding or conceptualization of what these terms mean and how we should treat them, and this shared understanding is the basis on which operational decisions are made:Datasets are built to evaluate these concepts, metrics are proposed to quantify them, and claims are made about systems. But what do they mean, what {\_}should{\_} they mean, and how should we measure them?I outline a seminar I created for students to explore these questions of conceptualization and operationalization, with an interdisciplinary reading list and an emphasis on discussion and critique."
}

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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Teaching and Critiquing Conceptualization and Operationalization in NLP
%A Gautam, Vagrant
%Y Aßenmacher, Matthias
%Y Biester, Laura
%Y Borg, Claudia
%Y Kovács, György
%Y Mieskes, Margot
%Y Serrano, Sofia
%S Proceedings of the Seventh Workshop on Teaching Natural Language Processing (TeachNLP 2026)
%D 2026
%8 March
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Rabat, Morocco
%@ 979-8-89176-375-3
%F gautam-2026-teaching-critiquing
%X NLP researchers regularly invoke abstract concepts like “interpretability,” “bias,” “reasoning,” and “stereotypes,” without defining them.Each subfield has a shared understanding or conceptualization of what these terms mean and how we should treat them, and this shared understanding is the basis on which operational decisions are made:Datasets are built to evaluate these concepts, metrics are proposed to quantify them, and claims are made about systems. But what do they mean, what _should_ they mean, and how should we measure them?I outline a seminar I created for students to explore these questions of conceptualization and operationalization, with an interdisciplinary reading list and an emphasis on discussion and critique.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.teachingnlp-1.11/
%P 69-77

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Markdown (Informal)

[Teaching and Critiquing Conceptualization and Operationalization in NLP](https://aclanthology.org/2026.teachingnlp-1.11/) (Gautam, TeachingNLP 2026)

Teaching and Critiquing Conceptualization and Operationalization in NLP (Gautam, TeachingNLP 2026)

ACL

Vagrant Gautam. 2026. Teaching and Critiquing Conceptualization and Operationalization in NLP. In Proceedings of the Seventh Workshop on Teaching Natural Language Processing (TeachNLP 2026), pages 69–77, Rabat, Morocco. Association for Computational Linguistics.