AI pragmatists: How language teachers are navigating AI with nuance |
A pervasive narrative has taken hold in education: generative AI (genAI) is an unstoppable force, and educators must adapt or be left behind.
Technology companies market AI tools as the ultimate classroom assistants, while popular media warns that essay writing is dead.
Teachers have long been labelled or framed by technology enthusiasts and policymakers as “resistant” and “risk averse.” Discourse about technology in classrooms has amplified notions that teachers either embrace or reject tech.
Yet research with educators is showing that a binary framing of AI innovators versus Luddites obscures what is actually happening in classrooms.
To better understand this, I turned to my own institution, the University of Ottawa’s Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute (OLBI). I consulted English as a second language (ESL) and French as a second language (FSL) instructors to examine their attitudes toward, and current use of, AI-assisted tools. I did this through conducting a bottom-up institutional survey.
Twenty-four of 60 eligible staff members responded, yielding a 40 per cent response rate. In the context of institutional research, this is a robust turnout that provides a representative cross-section of our department.
Because my goal was to understand the nuances of educators’ decision-making, this qualitative sample offers deep insights into front-line teaching realities. The findings point to a thoughtful majority of instructors navigating complex pedagogical terrain with considerable nuance.
The myth of the resistant teacher
As educational historian Larry Cuban has argued, teachers are not inherently resistant to technology; they’re resistant to tools that don’t solve their problems. Data from my study supports this distinction.
Research in acquiring a second language suggests experienced language educators, keen to see their students progress, seek normalization of novel technologies — the stage at which a tool becomes invisible and learning takes centre stage.
My survey confirms this orientation. When asked to identify........