AI in Early and Primary Education: Societal, Classroom, and Teacher Perspectives on Ethical and Pedagogical Integration

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in education (AIEd) comes along with both opportunities and challenges, particularly in ensuring its alignment with pedagogical principles and the teachers’ needs. This chapter explores the role of AIEd from the perspective of particular teacher needs, classroom dynamics, and broader societal implications. Employing the digital divide theory, we reflect upon the potential inequalities of AI and its impact in education. Furthermore, we discuss the findings of our systematic literature review on the current use of AIEd with particular emphasis on pre-school and primary education. Our results indicated that while AIEd applications in pre-school and primary education promise efficiencies in personalized learning and administrative tasks, their development and implementation often overlook critical pedagogical considerations and teacher guidance. Last, the chapter argues that teachers play an essential role in bridging the gap between technology and effective teaching, ensuring that the AIEd applications will not just be technologically advanced but also aligned with the learning goals and course design needs. Collaboration between different stakeholders (researchers, teachers, developers) is essential to create AI tools that are user-friendly, ethically sound, and tailored to meet diverse student needs.