Artificial intelligence and school leadership: challenges, opportunities and implications

Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic initiated a sudden and unprecedented acceleration in the digitalisation of teaching and learning (García et al. 2023). School leaders, teachers, and students had to rapidly adapt to a virtual classroom with online resources, synchronous and asynchronous teaching, and remote support (Harris and Jones 2020). Fast forward to the present day and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI), is the latest global force that looks set to radically reshape and redefine the nature of learning and teaching (Dobrin 2023).

The development of AI has advanced exponentially in recent years with the creation of new groundbreaking GenAI technologies that directly impact on education, at all levels, such as ChatGPT (Tajik and Tajik 2023). This latest Gen AI technology, and the technology that will inevitably follow it, is already beginning to upend the educational landscape.

In this editorial, we consider the rise of AI generally, GenAI specifically, and its impact on schools and school leaders. We consider some of the implications for education and look at the challenges and opportunities associated with the infusion of AI into all parts of daily life. We then consider school leadership and reflect on how it may be altered or influenced by the arrival of this latest technological disrupter.

The rise of AI

While AI has been used in education for the past 40 years, according to the last Global Education Monitoring Report that focused on ‘technology in education’, generative AI (GenAI) is the latest technology with the potential to transform education (UNESCO 2023). While many question whether AI will accelerate changes in education, others advocate caution about the use of technology, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of its educational use (Bernacki, Greene, and Crompton 2020). Most recently, Zhao et al. (2023) have warned about the potential negative relationship between AI and individual-level subjective wellbeing.

Although AI is certainly nothing new (Mitrovic, du Boulay, and Yacef 2023; Ouyan 2023; Selwyn 2020), it has recently become far more visible within the education sector because of GenAI, most specifically in the form of the application ChatGTP¹ (Chen et al. 2020). ChatGPT, developed by OPENAI², has prompted an educational watershed moment and has raised a wide range of pressing ethical, technical, and practical issues that have consequences for the learning and teaching relationship.

Adiguzel, Kaya, and Cansu (2023, 1) note that ‘ChatGPT describes itself as a powerful machine learning software that uses the Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT) algorithm to generate human-like responses to text-based inputs. In essence, it has the ability to reproduce responses that resemble those created by a human brain. García-Peñalvo (2023, 1) refer to this new tool as having ‘a tsunami effect’:

Of the multiple applications of this tool, the most significant debate focuses on its implications in Education and Academia due to its tremendous power to generate texts that could very well pass for human creations. We are at the dawn of a technology that has gone from being a toy tool to bidding to become a disruptive innovation. Whether it succeeds or not will depend on many factors, but if it does not, it will be another one like it. Denying it or banning it will do absolutely nothing to stop the tsunami effect that has already begun.

Cooper (2023) considers the impact of GenAI as having a seismic shift on education globally. Furthermore, it is noted that GenAI,in the form of ChatGPT, has the enormous potential to improve learning, teaching, pedagogical innovations, assessment, and educational administration through intelligent tutoring systems, chatbots, robots, learning analytics dashboards, adaptive learning systems and automated assessment, if used to support and enhance the educational process.

The ethical and responsible use of tools like ChatGPT however, requires urgent consideration before education systems around the world propel the introduction of GenAI into their classrooms. An assessment of the real impact that this technology will have on teaching and learning, for good or bad, has yet to be made. Research is lagging behind the rapid technological advancements in GenAI, and educators are playing catch-up each time a new version of a GenAI product emerges.

In reality, no one really knows where these new GenAI developments will lead. At this point, the exact outcomes are up for debate and all that is left is broad speculation. As noted already, there is little evidence globally that can pave the way about the future steps educationalists should take. Additionally, there is no large-scale, robust evidence of the efficacy of AI tools in education (Holmes, Bialik, and Fadel 2019). At this relatively early stage in the widespread use of GenAI in schools, UNESCO (2023, 5) has stated that ‘more evidence is needed to understand whether its tools can change how students learn, beyond the superficial level of obtaining answers and correcting mistakes’.

There is a lack of research, guidelines, policies, and regulations related to the specific ethical issues raised by the application of GenAI to education. Educationalists have many questions but very few answers. However, two things are crystal clear to us about the sudden appearance of GenAI. First, it is powerful. Second, it enters at a low point in the social infrastructure of society.

Social intelligence was indeed ‘underdeveloped’ prior to the pandemic, but the disruption caused by COVID-19 and its variants made matters worse in the short run—stress, mistrust, physical and emotional degradation have increasingly run amok in the past three years. At the same time, such disarray presents a Phoenix-like opportunity for the rebirth of humanity.

Soon what cannot be automated will become invaluable. As AI, automation and structural transformations reframe employment landscapes around the globe, it is worth recalling that UNESCO (2021b) has placed human work at the centre of education. Fullan (2021, 24) proposes that:

There is a big issue looming – machines and their AI. We have already seen that machines are not as great as some people think they are, but they can be intimidating as we face their colossal computational power. We have overestimated machines and underdeveloped social intelligence.

This argument serves as a reminder of the importance of social intelligence in a world where AI cannot replace genuine human emotional connections, but it still may be a powerful tool to support teaching, learning, research, and school leadership.

A recent OECD (2023) report suggests that AI will be able to solve all literacy and numeracy tests in the coming years, which could affect a large part of the population that currently uses reading and maths skills with comparable or lower proficiency than computers. Hence, education systems will have to strengthen the skills of their students, school leaders and teachers to train them to work proactively and discerningly with AI.

The potential of AI and the future of teaching and learning have recently been explored by the United States Department of Education (2023). This report concludes that traditional homework will be drastically affected, and the major challenge will be to adopt a new approach in education to redefine the way ahead, as AI forces a process of renewal and the transformation of education. Inevitably, this will also entail considering where school leaders stand in this new educational landscape.

Already, leadership and teaching teams are rethinking their roles and ways of working, as there are certain practices that no longer hold up in the emerging educational paradigm (Azorín and Fullan 2022). It is quite possible that AI and GenAI could lift the heavy administrative and managerial burdens that school leaders currently face. Conversely, such technology could erode or replace leadership functions altogether in a dramatically altered educational world. The simple truth is that either could be true.

Challenges and opportunities

Recent studies have shown how GenAI can be incorporated productively into classrooms (e.g. Mollick and Mollick 2022). As the application of GenAI in education will entail major methodological changes, teachers will have to make additional efforts to update the strategies and tools they use in their teaching programmes and use their professional judgment when planning how to include GenAI in the classroom. Assessment processes inevitably will prove to be more challenging as the range of GenAI products becomes more sophisticated and easily accessible to students. (Zhang and Mao 2023).

From a critical point of view, it is important to remember that all that glitters (in an AI world) is not always gold. There are inherent challenges and limitations to using this technology to support learners and learning. Hargreaves (2023) notes that concerns have been raised that it poses a significant risk of academic dishonesty within higher education, particularly in take-home assessments. His project found that using ChatGPT to generate answers to 24 different law exams was more successful when the exams were essay-based rather than issue-spotting or problem-solving. He concludes, however, that embracing ChatGTP as an active learning tool is a potential way forward and that blocking or denying its potential, as a learning tool, is simply not an option.

When using ChatGPT to search for information on a particular topic, students will find that often the solutions it provides do not really say anything original. In some cases, answers can be meaningless, linear or flat, failing to stimulate creativity, exploration and imagination (Karount and Harouni 2023). The real challenge for learners therefore is to recognise that an over-reliance on such tools can foster dependence and potentially, lead to underperformance or even failure (Hargreaves 2023).

Seeking solutions to complex problems and multiple realities requires human ingenuity and creativity. Such solutions cannot be produced by a machine or pre-programmed technology. Applying AI to education entails learning how to work with this technology to go beyond the specific task at hand and implement a deep learning approach (Fullan and Quinn 2023; Fullan, Quinn, and McEachen 2018).

In their work, Karount and Harouni (2023, 1) note that ChatGPT could be ‘a tool to transform the way we think, work, and act’. If ChatGPT is used to stimulate reflection, then human intelligence must provide ideas, solutions and proposals for improvement that complement it to give it meaning. If anything, AI in its broadest sense, is revealing the need for more creative, diverse and innovative ways of thinking that potentially could be triggered by the use of its many tools. In short, this technology has potential opportunities and benefits to help human beings in the next phase of their evolution.

UNESCO (2021a) propose that it is now time to prepare the next generation of students for a future in which AI is an increasingly important part of their lives. They propose that GenAI educational tools should be integrated into curricula policies accordingly. The European Commission (2022, 6) recently published a guide that contained advice for educators and school administrators, which concluded:

From the way we stay informed to the way we make decisions, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming ubiquitous in our economy and society. Naturally, it has reached our schools as well. ΑΙ in education is no longer a distant future. It is already changing the way schools, universities and educators work and our children learn. It is making educational settings more responsive by helping teachers address each learner's specific needs. It is fast becoming a staple in personalised tutoring and in assessment. And it is increasingly showing its potential to provide valuable insights in student development. The impact of AI on our education and training systems is undeniable and will grow further in the future.

So, what does all this mean for school leaders? What are the implications?

Implications for school leaders

Over the next school year, teachers and students will be making use of GenAI to a greater or lesser extent. Currently, school leaders are trying to work out how to coherently introduce AI into their schools, recognising the potential that this technology offers, but at the same time being acutely aware of the risks that it may bring to teaching and learning processes. Van Quaquebeke and Gerpott (2023, 272) note:

The question is not anymore whether AI will play a role in leadership, the question is whether we will still play a role. And if so, what role that might be. It is high time to start that debate.

So far, the literature on the emerging impact of AI on educational leadership has been scarce (Hejres 2022; Papa and Moran 2021; Tyson and Sauers 2021; Wang 2021). What exists, however, suggests that such technology can help educational leaders perform routine, mechanical tasks, thus allowing them to focus on other more productive and creative issues that demand their human skills and their social intelligence.

Leadership is fundamentally about making deep human connections and having compassion for others (Harris and Jones 2023). So, it is difficult to see how AI could authentically replace this core human leadership function. Without question, the introduction of new technologies into schools will change the way in which leadership work is conceived and done. It will require school leaders to constantly adapt and expand their technological knowledge and skills simply to remain ahead of the AI curve.

During the pandemic, school leadership shifted on its axis as new ways of leading at a distance had to emerge, and more distributed forms of leadership became the norm (Harris and Jones 2022). So, it could be argued that school leaders may be more prepared than ever to deal with the demands and uncertainties that accompany AI³. They have been here before, albeit dealing with a different form of unpredictable global change (Harris 2020).

Potentially, AI provides new opportunities for school leadership, but it also brings a vast range of ethical, moral, and practical challenges. There are also many new questions for school leaders without any definitive answers. For example:

Will AI change school leadership?

Why is AI important for school leaders right now?

What are the benefits and risks of its use in schools?

What skills and competencies will school leaders require to deal with AI in the future?

An important and rather disturbing question raised by Holmes, Bialik, and Fadel (2019) focuses on whether AI in education has been designed to supplant teachers/leaders or to reduce them to a functional role, rather than to assist them to teach/lead more effectively. In this sense, AI is conceived as a threat to teaching and leading as we know it.

According to the American Federation of School Administrators (2023), AI could influence school leaders’ roles and responsibilities by offering data-analysis, the automation of administrative tasks, helping with student support and intervention and steam-lining routine communication with teachers, students, and the wider community. The AI choices facing school leaders are complex and potentially confusing. Hence school leaders need to create a long-term vision for integrating this technology into their schools in a careful but principled way. Despite the allure and promise of this brave new AI/GenAI world, school leaders must always put the learning needs of children and young people first.

This technology may prove to be just a benign helpful educational tool or, conversely, a real danger to jobs and livelihoods. Only time will tell. The fact remains that school leaders are up close and personal with the challenges and opportunities posed by this technology. To make collective sense of the technological mayhem, accompanied by the relentless pressure for ever-accelerating change, school leaders will need their networks, relationships, and colleagues more than ever to forge a sensible way through.

In the future, school leaders will need to remain ever steadfast to their moral responsibility of serving all young people equally well in the technological choices and adaptations that they make. It is not so much how we integrate AI into our current education systems, rather it is how we refine our education systems around AI. What leaders value and assess will remain firmly in their control and ultimate will be thing that matters most⁴.

Leading the future of education: what's next?

Here are a few considerations to frame the crucial next period. First, make no assumptions whatsoever about the future of AI: No one knows; No one can know at this point! Second, put your money and energy into the development of social intelligence: the individual and collective development of ideas and actions based on what we call the ‘humanity paradigm’ (a commitment to all living things). The preservation and flourishing of the future of humanity and other living entities depend on developing people to work together.

The most important advice is to involve students in working out the solutions. They are the only ones who have been born into a world of technology. As a group, they know technology (but not necessarily pedagogy) better than anyone. Take this opportunity to partner with students to prepare them as changemakers in society and for society.

Paradoxically AI could turn out to be the most powerful force ever known that could dramatically increase the wherewithal for humans to work together. To take one obvious example, we know that when teachers work together with good leadership from each other and other leaders, they can make a major difference in the lives of students. But traditional school structure and culture are not conducive to teachers and students working together collectively over time to make a significant and profound difference in the lives of all students.

The power of AI could be used to reduce much of the mechanical load of teachers and even to provide some basic support for students under the direction of teachers who would be freed up to work with each other, with students, parents, and others in the community to maximise support and learning for all students. Not the least of these new developments would be mobilising the power of students as significant learners and changemakers, as we are seeing in our work on deep learning (Fullan and Quinn 2023).

At the same time, there are many ways in which AI, if left alone, could be used in a way that neglects or harms (however unwittingly) the growth and development of students. The power of purposeful collective intelligence, proactively taking into account the dangers and potential downside of AI, could serve a major purpose in ascertaining the development of students in what is an increasingly complex and challenging world where the future of the planet and its people are increasingly on the line. In short, no matter how one looks at it, AI is simultaneously, inevitably powerful, dangerous, and possibly our human salvation.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 ChatGTP Version 4.

2 https://openai.com/

3 Thanks to Jeremy Griffiths (Bangor University) for helpful comments on this editorial.

4 Thanks to Adam Ridley for his insights and suggestions on this editorial.