Five pillars of ethical AI use for teaching and learning

Abstract

As generative AI tools reshape K-12 classrooms, teachers face urgent questions about what counts as thinking, learning, and authentic work. One thing is clear: teachers are responding and adapting, redesigning learning, leveraging and challenging AI’s affordances. Their stories reveal a profession in motion, grappling with deep pedagogical dilemmas — not just technical ones — at the heart of what learning is, and what we are deciding it still means. Drawing from over 60 teacher interviews, Brent Duckor and Carrie Holmberg propose five foundational “pillars” for ethical practice — Accuracy, Agency, Accessibility, Assessment, and Authenticity. Each of these pillars is associated with essential questions to guide intentional, equity-centered use of AI.