Social and Emotional Learning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Toward Human Agency, Ethical Judgment, and Culturally Responsive K–12 Education
Artificial intelligence is becoming part of the informational, creative, and relational environments in which children learn and develop. This paper argues that artificial intelligence changes the contexts in which social and emotional competencies are exercised, not the fundamental importance of those competencies. Drawing on research in social and emotional learning, ecological systems theory, sociocultural theory, social cognitive theory, African relational accounts of personhood, and emerging scholarship on generative artificial intelligence in education, the paper advances a human-centered agenda for K–12 education. It introduces Social-Emotional Agency in AI-Mediated Environments (SE-AIME) as a provisional construct comprising four dimensions: reflective self-awareness, relational discernment, ethical agency, and culturally grounded participation. The paper maps these dimensions to the CASEL framework, presents five practical metaphors for learning design, outlines a developmentally responsive K–12 progression, and proposes the GUIDE heuristic for teacher decision-making. The paper also establishes safeguarding boundaries for student-facing artificial intelligence. AI systems should not function as therapists, confidants, moral authorities, disciplinary judges, or substitutes for essential human relationships. Their appropriate educational role is to provide carefully governed scaffolding for reflection, rehearsal, translation, feedback, and inquiry. The central educational goal is not merely competent AI use. It is the development of young people who can retain judgment, responsibility, cultural grounding, relational capacity, and human agency when intelligent systems participate in learning and communication. Description type: OtherTitle: AI-Assistance DisclosureLanguage: English Generative AI tools supported drafting, structural refinement, bibliographic checking, language editing, document formatting, and quality assurance under human direction and review. Professor Moustapha Diack is the human author and retains responsibility for the paper’s arguments, interpretations, source selection, accuracy, and publication decisions. AI systems are not credited as authors. Additional Description — Scope and Evidence Note Description type: OtherTitle: Scope and LimitationsLanguage: English This publication is a conceptual synthesis rather than a systematic review, clinical guide, legal analysis, or report of primary empirical research. The SE-AIME construct, developmental progression, classroom metaphors, and GUIDE teacher heuristic are provisional scholarly propositions requiring empirical, developmental, and cross-cultural validation.