M.02. Convivial Pedagogies for the Age of AI: Autonomy, Bias Awareness, and Democratic Non-Homogenization

This panel examines how non-directive education traditions—drawing on Tools for Conviviality by Ivan Illich and Pedagogy of Autonomy by Paulo Freire—offer critical resources for rethinking democratic education in an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. Rather than approaching AI as a neutral instrument, the panel conceptualizes it as an emerging form of agency whose computational logics may foster dependency, epistemic homogenization, and the erosion of human autonomy.

Illich’s analysis of radical monopolies and his notion of thresholds of mutation illuminate how digital infrastructures may cross a critical point beyond which tools cease to support autonomy and instead reorganize educational experience around efficiency, predictability, and control. In parallel, Freire’s emphasis on ethical self-formation and dialogical responsibility frames education as an inherently moral and political practice aimed at cultivating critical agency.

The panel argues that the theoretical apparatus of non-directive pedagogy can be translated into concrete educational practices oriented toward the co-construction of knowledge, the critical examination of algorithmic and cognitive biases, and the cultivation of dialectical argumentation as a democratic competence. Against educational models prioritizing prediction and standardization, convivial pedagogies promote reflective judgment, plural reasoning, and participatory learning environments.

By integrating insights from philosophy of education, virtue ethics, and critical AI studies, the panel articulates an interdisciplinary framework for empowering learners to engage with AI without relinquishing autonomy or dialogical agency. Ultimately, it explores how educational institutions might reconfigure AI from an apparatus of normalization into a convivial partner sustaining democratic plurality.