Critical Pedagogy in the Era of AI: Reclaiming Human Agency in Digital Classrooms

Written by Dr. Fariha Gul

Academician, Researcher and Writer

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education is transforming how students learn, teachers teach, and institutions operate. From adaptive learning platforms and automated grading systems to generative AI that can produce essays and solve complex problems, AI’s presence in education is both promising and deeply disruptive. While these technologies offer unprecedented personalization, efficiency, and access to resources, they also pose serious challenges to the values and practices of critical pedagogy.

Critical pedagogy, rooted in the work of Paulo Freire (1970), emphasizes the development of critical consciousness, the questioning of dominant narratives, and the transformation of oppressive social structures through education. Its central goal is not only to transfer knowledge but to empower learners as agents of change in their own contexts. In the AI-driven classroom, however, the role of dialogue, dissent, and human judgment is increasingly mediated—or even replaced—by algorithmic systems.

The Risks of Algorithmic Pedagogy

AI-driven learning systems are often designed with embedded biases inherited from their training data. This can reproduce inequities rather than dismantle them. For example, predictive analytics used in admissions or grading can inadvertently disadvantage students from marginalized backgrounds. Moreover, the growing reliance on AI tools risks turning learning into a transactional process—efficient but shallow—where students consume machine-generated content rather than engage in dialogic, problem-posing education.

When algorithms become gatekeepers of knowledge, the danger is that education shifts from cultivating critical thinkers to producing compliant, algorithmically “optimized” learners. This shift undermines the emancipatory goals of critical pedagogy, replacing them with a technocratic vision of efficiency and standardization.

Reimagining Critical Pedagogy in the AI Age

Rather than rejecting AI outright, critical pedagogy can evolve to critique and repurpose these technologies for liberatory aims. This involves:

• Critical AI Literacy – Teaching students not only how to use AI tools, but how to interrogate their design, data sources, and potential biases. AI becomes an object of study, not just an instrument of instruction.

• Dialogic Human–AI Interaction – Designing classroom activities where AI output is a starting point for debate, reflection, and re-writing rather than the final answer.

• Ethical Co-Design – Involving educators and learners in the development and selection of AI tools, ensuring that they align with humanistic and justice-oriented educational values.

• Resisting Datafication – Limiting the over-surveillance of learners’ activities through AI systems, thereby protecting their autonomy and right to experiment without constant performance monitoring.

The Teacher’s Role as a Mediator

In the AI era, teachers must become critical mediators between learners and technology. This means curating and contextualizing AI-generated knowledge, highlighting gaps and biases, and fostering spaces for dissent. Far from being rendered obsolete, educators have an expanded responsibility: to ensure that technological tools serve democratic learning rather than corporate efficiency metrics.

Conclusion

The era of AI presents both a challenge and an opportunity for critical pedagogy. If educators and students can cultivate the skills to question, subvert, and repurpose AI, then these technologies can be woven into a pedagogy of liberation rather than control. However, if left unchecked, AI risks accelerating the very forms of educational oppression that critical pedagogy seeks to dismantle. The task ahead is not only to adapt critical pedagogy to AI, but to ensure that AI itself becomes a site of critical engagement, reflection, and transformation.

References

• Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.

• Giroux, H. A. (2020). On Critical Pedagogy (2nd ed.). London: Bloomsbury.

• Knox, J. (2020). Artificial intelligence and education in China. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(3), 298–311. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2020.1754236

• Selwyn, N. (2019). Should robots replace teachers? AI and the future of education. Polity Press.

• Williamson, B., & Eynon, R. (2020). Historical trends and contemporary debates in the digital governance of education. Learning, Media and Technology, 45(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2020.1707518

• Zawacki-Richter, O., Marín, V. I., Bond, M., & Gouverneur, F. (2019). Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 16(39). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0171-0