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A professor from ÔÂÎèÖ±²¥ Leicester (ÔÂÎèÖ±²¥) has spoken about the threats and opportunities that AI brings for teachers and teaching at a high-level event run by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

Dr Sarah Younie, Professor of Education Innovation at ÔÂÎèÖ±²¥, addressed UNESCO’s Digital Learning Week in Paris to co-present a new position paper on AI in teaching from the International Teacher Task Force (ITTF) of which she is part.

Professor Younie, who is Editor-in-Chief of the international research journal Technology, Pedagogy and Education, and elected global chair of the International Council on Education for Teaching (ICET), spoke at UNESCO alongside April Williamson of Digital Promise, a Washington-based not-for-profit organisation backed by the Gates Foundation and the US Government.

Together they presented the position paper: Promoting and Protecting Teacher Agency in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, which explores how AI can be integrated into education equitably and ethically while preserving teacher agency.

Professor Younie said: “This is a fast-changing space where AI is potentially changing the role of teachers, and we have to ask how we can protect them because that's important, but we also need to look at the educational opportunities that AI can undoubtedly offer.

“These are such important questions; will AI lead to a decline in thinking practises? Will it dehumanise education? Will we have teacherless schools?”

“One of the key points is that there needs to be more research in this field and particularly more longitudinal studies, in order to provide robust evidence on which to make decisions.”

The position paper itself recognises that AI has an important role in education but reaffirms that teaching is, and must remain, a fundamentally human and relational practice and that teachers must be empowered and placed at the centre.

 begins: “Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the education landscape, yet its transformative potential will ultimately be defined by the people who design, implement, and mediate its use. Central to this human infrastructure are teachers, whose professional capacities and agency should be foregrounded in any AI integration strategy.”

Professor Younie and April Williamson worked on the paper as part of a team that included Mutlu Cukorova, Professor of Learning and Artificial Intelligence at UCL and Carlos Vargas, Head of the Secretariat of the Teacher Task Force.

Professor Younie was chosen because of her longstanding links with the Teacher Task Force, as co-chair and founder member of the Education Futures Collaboration (EFC) and MESH (Mapping Education Specialist knowHow) project, which is an NGO member of the UNESCO supported TTF.

Digital Learning Week was held at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters and was attended by 90 education ministers from around the world including Steven Morgan MP, who at the time was the UK Government Minister for Early Education, but has since moved to the position of Government Whip (Junior Lord of the Treasury).