Harvard Education Press (@harvard-ed-press.bsky.social)

How the Use of Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Classrooms Will Test the Practice and Profession of Teaching, and Why the Future of Education Requires Centering Relationships In this article, Hillary L. Greene Nolan begins by describing four ways the entry of artificial intelligence (AI) into K-12 classrooms in the United States has been framed thus far: (1) as a solution to today’s problems, and particularly learning loss related to the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) as unlikely to replace teachers; (3) as an important facet of our economic competitiveness; and (4) as ubiquitous, and thus necessary to learn and use. Greene Nolan then demonstrates problems with each framing in light of the history of the field of education, the profession of teaching, and current conditions in schools. She proposes new framings that account for the field’s complex history and today’s challenges, starting with accepting AI in K-12 settings only when it does not replace or minimize student-student or teacher-student relationships. Greene Nolan argues that the future of our education system and the shared humanity we build through education depends on protecting not only teachers’ positions as instructional leaders but also students’ opportunities to learn with human teachers. Key strategies should include continuing to work to solve structural problems in our education system that existed prior to the present moment and codifying the professional breadth of teachers’ work into a knowledge base that emphasizes the parts of teaching and relating to children that AI should never do (since only codifying the instructional parts will make AI teaching seem like a viable alternative to human teaching). A central implication is that we must face the possibility that AI-equipped tools that simulate instructional exchanges could replace teachers by first replacing interactions, and then relationships, threatening one of the last institutions that centers our humanity–our schools. https://bit.ly/4oIyOEh