Building educator’s power to shape AI
Ford Foundation
The official push to roll out AI in education (among every other area…) throws up sticky questions of pedagogy, practicality and professionalism. Yet too often the voices of educators – support staff, teachers, school leaders and specialists – are squeezed out by the promises of Edtech products offering to solve everything from attainment to attendance.
These millions of educators retain deep embodied knowledge and experience of the realities of education and their students, not decontextualised data, models or predictions. They are professionals whose skill and commitment must be empowered by technology and never undermined. Educators are the group most trusted by parents to make decisions about the use of AI in education – well above Edtech companies and the government. This trust is essential to support the diffusion of what is, for many, a contentious technology. These educators and their unions must be heard, by critics, boosters, policy makers and Edtech developers.
In partnership with the TUC, and supported by the Ford Foundation, we’re working with nine unions representing millions of workers in the education sector, across every job group in Wales, Scotland and England.*
Action learning for educators to understand, negotiate and advocate on AI
In a 7-month action-learning project starting in September 2025, officers from participating unions engage in monthly sessions to explore concepts and topics central to the adoption of AI in education, and take action to strengthen educator voice.
Guests from academia, civil society, the private sector and unions abroad have been engaged as the group builds capacity to understand and respond to issues ranging from pedagogy and learning; democratising AI governance including through collective bargaining; and enhancing the professional autonomy and skills of educators working with AI and Edtech.
What’s next?
The project with education workers is part of a wider project with the TUC around AI and digital technologies. A key priority is enabling the unique role of trade unions – in collaboration with civil society – to act as the necessary countervailing force to the powerful and often narrow interests and perspectives that drive the AI industry. Lessons from this initial 7-month education-focused action-learning project will feed into this wider work extending to workers and unions across sectors.
*Participating unions:
Resources
A joint statement made by 10 unions representing education workers, produced as part of the Connected by Data and TUC project ‘Building educator’s power to shape AI‘
We are ten unions representing millions of educators across the UK – teachers, specialists, support staff, school leaders, and workers throughout the education system. Every day we support, teach and lead in schools, colleges, and universities across all jurisdictions of the UK.
As AI is being rolled out rapidly in education, there is an urgent need to ensure this is shaped by the expertise and professional judgement of these educators. We recognise that AI and education technology (EdTech) can complement human-centred education. But we know that AI cannot solve the education system’s deeper problems: underfunding, teacher shortages, overwhelming workloads, or the social and economic pressures educators face every day. And without clear guardrails, these technologies risk making existing problems worse and undermining both quality of education and students’ best interests.
To realise the potential that AI in education can offer, educators and their unions must be central to every stage of AI adoption, from policy formation and design, through procurement and deployment, to evaluation. All actors and institutions must ensure that AI and EdTech strengthens, not replaces or undermines, the vital relationships between all education workers and students.
We set out here the ways in which educator voice must be empowered from end to end, from the highest levels of regulation to decisions at local levels.