Ei-iE

While tech companies race to embed Artificial Intelligence (AI) in schools and campuses worldwide, the voices of educators have been largely sidelined. Education International's conference, Shaping Our Future: Education Unions Leading for a Human-Centred AI, puts educators back at the centre. The 4-5 December Brussels conference will bring together union leaders, educators, and experts to tackle AI's impact on education and research.

While AI presents exciting new opportunities for learning, teaching, research and union organizing, it also poses serious risks. If left unchecked, AI can undermine education as a human right and erode educators' working conditions and professional autonomy while perpetuating harmful social and environmental consequences. From exploitative labour practices in AI development to its use in misinformation and political manipulation, the broader impact of AI must be critically examined.

As AI tools increasingly enter classrooms, campuses, and educational systems, the role of education unions has never been more critical in ensuring that the opportunities presented by AI are harnessed while its risks are safeguarded against.

This aligns strongly with EI's Go Public! Fund Education campaign, which asserts the centrality of the teaching profession in decision-making processes about education policy, including technological transformation.

Building collective capacity across all contexts

Building on Education International's previous work on AI, this timely conference advances the goals set out in the most recent EI World Congress resolutions, which call for a human-centred, ethical, and rights-based approach to AI, one that demands transparency, safeguards equity and quality, and supports rather than replaces, the essential role of educators.

The conference aims to provide a platform of exchange to support EI member organisations in shaping the role of AI to ensure quality, equity, and inclusion, safeguard educators' rights, and uphold democratic values. It is open to all EI member organisations, regardless of the level of digitalisation in the contexts in which they operate, from highly digitalised environments to those where the use of AI remains limited.

Interactive programme tackles critical challenges

The conference will feature ample plenary time with keynote speakers and collective reflection, alongside hands-on breakout sessions designed to delve into critical topics in more depth. The breakout sessions are organised around three thematic strands: equity, professional issues, and union strategies, which will explore key tools and approaches, including regulatory frameworks, guardrails, union organising and social dialogue.

Sessions will examine how AI can support educators without undermining their professional autonomy, how to navigate AI's impact on research and academic freedom, and strategies for ensuring AI literacy serves democratic education. A strong focus on equity will address who controls AI development, how to bridge digital divides, and ways to counter AI's potential to exacerbate existing inequalities.

Empowering unions to shape the future

The shared goal is to build collective capacity at all levels, empowering unions to shape AI integration and policy in ways that ensure education and research are inclusive, democratic, and firmly grounded in human rights and professional values. By bringing together diverse voices and experiences from across the globe, the conference will equip participants with concrete strategies and tools to advocate for human-centred approaches to AI in their national and regional contexts.

If you have any questions or need help with registration, please contact Education International at [email protected]

To find more about EI's work on AI please go here