M.03. Critical Dialogue with AI in Schools: Metacognition, Agency, and Democratic Learning

Artificial intelligence is entering educational institutions at unprecedented pace. Without deliberate critical practice, we risk automating the very spaces where democracy and human agency should flourish. Yet a crucial question remains: how can we ensure that AI becomes a tool for deepening critical thinking and human agency, rather than a mechanism for automating decisions and outsourcing pedagogical judgment?

This panel explores AI integration in education through the lens of foundational sociocultural and metacognitive frameworks. Drawing on Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development, we position AI not as a replacement for human mediation but as a potential mediator—one that requires rigorous critical reflection to function ethically. Metacognition (Flavell) and dialogism (Bakhtin) become central: learners and educators must develop awareness of how they interact with AI systems, understanding AI as a dialogical partner rather than an oracular authority.

We welcome research addressing two interconnected dimensions. First, the teacher's role: how can educators use AI responsibly for lesson design, content creation, and assessment while maintaining pedagogical agency and ethical judgment? Second, student empowerment: what pedagogical approaches foster critical AI literacy, meaningful participation, and metacognitive self-evaluation rather than passive consumption?

This panel invites empirical studies, theoretical frameworks, and case studies examining AI integration across diverse educational contexts—from primary to adult education, formal to informal settings. We seek work that grapples with tensions between innovation and critical caution, automation and agency, efficiency and democratic deliberation.

The aim is to generate dialogue among researchers, educators, and practitioners committed to embedding democratic values into educational AI adoption.