Artificial Intelligence and education: Preserving human agency in a world of automation

The International Day of Education will take place on 24 January 2025 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, from 9:30am to 6:00pm.

Under the theme “AI and education: Preserving human agency in a world of automation”, the Day will explore how education can help people understand and steer AI to ensure human control, while directing it towards desired objectives that respect human rights and advance progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. The event will feature keynote addresses and discussions with education leaders, including teachers, scholars, policy-makers, and private sector partners. 

Our session on teachers - How can the agency of teachers be cultivated in AI adoption? 

14:30 – 16:00, Room IV

The Teacher Task Force is co-organizing a breakaway session related to the issue of AI and its implications for teachers, including AI's potential for teaching and learning, possible challenges to agency human agency and autonomy, as well as mitigating strategies to ensure teachers remain central to the education system and are supported in its use.

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education has the potential to transform teaching and learning processes and revolutionize education systems around the world. As AI technologies become more pervasive, it is crucial to ensure that teachers are prepared and empowered by the vast potential for AI to radically transform how education systems function. This panel will discuss how AI can be harnessed by teachers as a new tool for teaching and learning while revaluing and protecting teaching in times of generative AI. With growing concerns that AI could undermine the teaching profession and the delivery of quality education, the panel will argue that teacher agency and autonomy need to remain central to education systems and how the teaching profession should be strengthened to reimagine and contribute to the futures of education.

The potential of AI and the irreplaceability of teachers

AI has tremendous potential to be an important tool to support teaching and learning and revolutionize education in many ways still yet unknown. Nonetheless, its integration must be approached with a steadfast commitment to the irreplaceability of teachers who play a pivotal role in the education process. Implicit to the AI competency framework for teachers, there are several competencies that teachers possess which cannot be replicated by AI. Professional development to enhance these and other competencies will be critical.

AI cannot replace the relational dimension of education. This includes the social and affective connections that teachers establish with their students, which are key for the socialization and the personal development of learners. For instance, teachers motivate and inspire learners by guiding and nurturing them and their learning.

This also includes the critical pedagogical thinking required to know where, when and how to use AI with learners and the potential use they in turn can do of this and other technologies. Since generative-AI is based on the vast repository of data gathered online, including incomplete and non-factual content, teachers must also possess the media and information literacy skills required to evaluate content and discern factual content from misinformation, disinformation and provide balance to the perspectives being presented.

AI requires that teachers bring an ethical dimension to the teaching and learning process. They need to demonstrate and teach values to ensure AI is used ethically covering topics such as legal, privacy, discrimination, safety, intellectual property, and the social right of free access to information.

Lastly, AI contains several biases based on the sources, voices, and languages it draws from for which teachers will have an important role to ensure a greater inclusivity, plurality and diversity of voices, including those from low-income countries, remote and indigenous communities, people with disabilities and ensuring gender equality. Teachers will also have a role in helping to understand, identify and question these inherent biases to help avoid reproducing and legitimizing them. For multiple reasons, AI should be viewed as an aid to teachers rather than a substitute for their expertise and unique competencies.

AI and the deprofessionalization of teaching

While AI has potential for enhancing teaching and, in some cases, carry out tasks teachers alone have completed in the past, there might be red lines that should not be crossed given AI’s potential towards the deprofessionalization of teaching. Controversy abounds, especially where an overreliance on AI could lead to teachers’ loss of key skills and cognitive competencies to make informed professional judgements based on the available information and evidence such as in assessing and evaluating student learning. Moreover, with strains on education systems and teachers’ time, another red line is represented using AI as a long-term solution to deal with deeper structural challenges in education systems originating from a lack of funding, support to teachers and a recognition of teachers’ critical role. Future initial teacher education and continuing professional development efforts will need to incorporate how to use AI in teaching and learning, while also ensuring that basic competencies leading to effective teaching are not neglected but maintained.

AI and the digital divide

Finally, while AI has the potential to enhance accessibility to information, the digital divide that remains globally could deepen exclusion based on a gap between learners, teachers, communities and societies in general. It is essential to consider and address the needs of low-income and developing contexts to ensure an inclusive approach for teaching with and benefiting from AI.

Aim and objectives

In celebration of the International Day of Education on 24 January 2025, UNESCO and the International Task Force on Teachers for Education (Teacher Task Force) or TTF are organizing a breakout session in-person at its headquarters in Paris in Room IV. The event aims to define and defend human agency in AI-enabled education. The breakout session aims to:

• Examine the irreplaceability of teachers based on their unique human competencies, especially for effective teaching, learning, socialization of learners, critical thinking, and the ethical dimension;
• Promote the professional development of teachers including critical AI literacies by equipping educators and learners with the competencies needed to understand, use and influence AI technologies, in line with the UNESCO AI competency frameworks for teachers and students; and
• Discuss how AI can be used equitably to avoid further gaps between learners, teachers, communities and societies, which can reinforce exclusion, differences in learning achievement, other education outcomes and results for societies and economies.

Programme of the session 14:30 – 16:00, Room IV

Moderator an opening remarks: Mr Carlos Vargas, Chief of UNESCO’s Section for Teacher Development and Head of the Secretariat of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030

Ms Laura Gregory, Senior Education Specialist and Global Lead on Teachers, World Bank. Question: With the emergence of AI, what are the implications for initial teacher education and continuing professional development? How can low-income countries ensure teachers develop new competencies to address AI?

Mr Jari Lavonen, Professor, University of Helsinki and Chair of the Finnish Education Council. Question: What are the main threats of AI to teacher agency and autonomy? What potential mitigating factors and interventions exist that can ensure teachers remain at the centre of teaching?

Mr Ramon Moorlag, Co-creation Manager, National Education Lab AI, Netherlands. Question: Teachers’ voices are critical to impact decision-making and effective policy making, how can countries reinforce teachers and their unions to ensure their needs are addressed? How can AI be leveraged to alleviate the workloads of teachers?

Mr Ben Garside, Senior Learning Manager (AI Literacy), Raspberry Pi. Question: What are the unique opportunities that AI can bring to teachers, and how can this positively impact teaching? What training opportunities are available and how is Raspberry Pi addressing the issue of language bias in the use of AI tools?

Ms Inès Drège, Coordonnatrice CASNAV, Académie de Dijon. Question: What kinds of challenges is AI presenting in the classroom and what kinds of support would be most useful, including training, resources and other forms of support?

Useful links:

• This event is in-person only and you can register through this link.

• For up-to-date information, detailed programme of the event and other relevant documents, please visit this dedicated webpage.