Emergent Technology, Emergent Critique: Students and Teachers Developing Critical AI Literacy through Participatory Design around Generative AI
A 5-week program let Latinx students shape how generative AI enters classrooms...
A new study from Santiago Ojeda-Ramirez, Eva Durall Gazulla, and Kylie Peppler (arXiv:2604.21995) reports on a five-week participatory design program where three 11th-grade Latinx students and three high school teachers in California jointly negotiated how generative AI tools would be used and taught about in classrooms. The researchers analyzed video recordings and designed artifacts to identify critical AI literacy practices that emerged as students and teachers designed together.
The analysis revealed three key practices: collectively unsettling assumptions about AI (questioning hype and limitations), mutual learning through complementary expertise (students brought technical familiarity, teachers brought pedagogical knowledge), and grounding AI critique in cultural knowledge and creative practice. This case extends work on youth as protagonists by showing how participatory design enables students to shape both the adoption and interrogation of generative AI in their learning environments. The work was presented at the 2026 CHI conference (DOI: 10.1145/3773077.3812170).
- Three 11th-grade Latinx students and three teachers co-designed AI use policies over 5 weeks
- Three practices emerged: unsettling assumptions, mutual learning, and cultural grounding
- Study published at CHI 2026 conference (DOI: 10.1145/3773077.3812170)
Why It Matters
Shows a scalable model for letting students co-design AI adoption in schools, not just be passive users.