Is Artificial Intelligence the Catalyst for Systemic Change in Education?

We are currently witnessing an era of abundance of AI-powered products in education. For teachers, tools like Eduaide, MagicSchool, and Diffit are just a few examples of resources that help create lessons, assessments, and teaching materials with the click of a button. This is a dream for educators who, not long ago, had to develop these materials from scratch. For students, educational AI technologies, such as intelligent tutoring and adaptive assessment systems, are gaining popularity. For example, Khanmigo, Synthesis Math Tutor, and Microsoft Coaches are platforms that promise to provide tailored feedback, adapt instructional content to individual learning needs, and offer real-time personalization based on each student’s progress. With the growth in both the number and capabilities of AI tools, we are at a critical juncture in the future of education, requiring us to answer pressing questions and engage in difficult, yet much-needed conversations. 

Advancements in AI are prompting an examination of our practices as we rethink what content in our curricula really matters and what skills our students need to acquire. What aspects of teaching must be led by educators, and what can be offloaded to Generative AI tools? Can certain AI tools replace teachers? Would learning be maximized without professional relationships and trust between the teacher and the learners? Can the social and emotional aspects of learning be nurtured by machines? To address these questions, it is crucial to develop a clear roadmap that guides the integration of AI in educational systems. 

A Roadmap for the Future 

Acknowledging its multifaceted nature, AI in education (AIEd) must be explored through an interdisciplinary approach, encompassing multiple lenses such as curriculum, pedagogy, technology, teacher preparation, policy, cognition, emotional intelligence, social sciences, equity, ethics, and sustainability. Given this complexity, provincial and territorial educational systems can benefit from collaborative pan-Canadian taskforces that empower educators, students, parents, administrators, and policymakers to navigate AIEd effectively and equitably. These taskforces can consider the following actions:     

• Develop students’ AI literacy: Introducing AI topics, such as machine learning, language models, algorithms, into the school curriculum can enrich students’ educational experiences. The curriculum should also include content related to the applications and limitations of AI and evaluating its ethical and social implications (human-AI interaction, equity, safety, academic misconduct, information bias, exploiting cheap labor to train language models, etc.). These concepts and competencies must be integrated into K-12 curricula in ways that align with various subject areas, with the goal of advancing students’ AI literacy (Estaiteyeh, 2025; OECD; 2025).  
• Support educators: Providing teachers with relevant pedagogical toolkits and ongoing professional development will better equip them for AI-enhanced classrooms and enable them to make informed decisions about these technologies (UNESCO, 2024). Such initiatives can also guide teachers in leveraging AI as an opportunity to enhance students’ 21st century skills, such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving, while promoting student-centred pedagogies and interdisciplinary curriculum design.  
• Guide policy and decision-making: Recognizing the systemic implications of AIEd, ministries of education, school boards, and researchers must collaborate on developing policies to ensure ethical and equitable adoption of AI. This involves addressing issues such as algorithmic bias, data governance and privacy, and equitable access to AI resources across diverse socio-economic and cultural contexts.  
• Engage in discussions with the EdTech industry: Communication between educators, researchers, and the EdTech industry offers opportunities to ensure alignment of EdTech products with educational goals, pedagogical principles, and equity and ethical considerations (Bai et al., 2023). Such collaboration would bridge the gap between industry and educational institutions and involve educators in the current transformation rather than leaving it solely to the tech giants. 
• Involve the public: Outreach and awareness programs are important to engage broader communities, especially parents and marginalized groups, to demonstrate how AI can impact their lives and their children’s learning.  
• Foster national and international collaborations between researchers and education professionals to explore AIEd applications and implications, as outlined below. 

 Opportunities for Collaborative Research  

Apart from the hype associated with AIEd tools, it is still fair to question whether and how these products benefit students’ learning (Mustafa et al., 2024; Williamson, 2023). For instance, do AI-powered tools, such as intelligent tutoring and adaptive assessment systems, advance meaningful personalized learning that supports diverse learners? Also, to what extent can these tools go beyond basic educational processes to enhance authentic learning, cognition, and critical thinking?  

In addition to students’ outcomes, we need to explore the implications of AI tools for the overall teaching and learning environment. Future research must address foundational inquiries pertaining to how an AI-powered classroom will look, what curriculum philosophies and theories inform it, and the new role of teachers in these settings. To that end, research teams can explore:  

1. how educators can find the balance between AI-assisted personalized teaching and collaborative education;  
2. whether and how the use of AI tools will shift teachers’ focus from content delivery to promoting higher order thinking skills and 21st century skills; 
3. how the human-AI co-intelligence will manifest in the classroom and whether we can create the conditions for human intelligence to flourish via AI;  
4. how AI-enhanced classrooms can prioritize the human side of education and help build positive professional relationships in the school space; and  
5. if and how AI tools can advance inclusive and equitable education. 

Concluding Remarks 

While the arrival of Generative AI feels unprecedented, it follows a long history of educational technologies once announced as transformative, from the audio-visual movement of the mid-20th century to more recent “flavours of the year” such as interactive whiteboards and massive open online courses (MOOCs). Each of these innovations promised to revolutionize teaching and learning, yet their impact was often constrained by familiar challenges: limited pedagogical integration, uneven access, insufficient training, and the persistent tendency to treat technology as a substitute for thoughtful instructional design. Reflecting on these earlier cycles reminds us that technological change alone does not reshape education; what matters is how institutions and educators adapt their practices, policies, and expectations.  

Despite the disruptions the educational sector has been facing in the past few years, AI may present a long-awaited opportunity to catalyze meaningful change in educational systems. This is not a techno-optimistic stance based on fascination with AI’s capabilities. Rather, the evolving capabilities of AI tools are forcing educators and institutions to confront difficult questions about the future of teaching, learning, and assessment. The pressing question now is whether we will leverage this moment to create the conditions for a thoughtful, equitable, and sustainable transformation or squander a rare opportunity to rethink education at its core. 

Reflective Questions 

1. Which of the ideas presented in the article would you most like to explore with your colleagues? How might you structure the conversation? 
2. How might your school or school district engage in an action research project around one of the ideas presented? How might you connect with researchers? 

References 

Bai, J. Y. H., Müskens, W., Zawacki-Richter, O., & Loglo, F. S. (2023). Future prospects of artificial intelligence in education: Developing strategic scenarios to engage educators. ASCILITE 2023 Conference Proceedings: People, Partnerships and Pedagogies, 22–29. https://doi.org/10.14742/apubs.2023.534 

Estaiteyeh, M. (2025). Canada needs a national AI literacy strategy to help students navigate AI. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/canada-needs-a-national-ai-literacy-strategy-to-help-students-navigate-ai-257513  

Mustafa, M. Y., Tlili, A., Lampropoulos, G., Huang, R., Jandrić, P., Zhao, J., Salha, S., Xu, L., Panda, S., Kinshuk, López-Pernas, S., & Saqr, M. (2024). A systematic review of literature reviews on artificial intelligence in education (AIED): A roadmap to a future research agenda. Smart Learning Environments, 11(1), 59. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-024-00350-5  

OECD (2025). Empowering learners for the age of AI: An AI literacy framework for primary and secondary education (Review draft). OECD. https://ailiteracyframework.org   

UNESCO. (2024). AI competency framework for teachers. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54675/ZJTE2084 

Williamson, B. (2023, August 29). Code acts in education: Degenerative AI in education. National Education Policy Center. https://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/ai-education  

Meet the Expert(s)

Mohammed Estaiteyeh

Assistant Professor, Brock University

Dr. Mohammed Estaiteyeh is an Assistant Professor of Digital Pedagogies and Technology Literacies in the Faculty of Education at Brock University, Canada. He holds a Brock Chancellor’s Chair for Teaching Excellence.

Read More