From Chalkboards to AI Prompts: Exploring the Lived Experiences of K-12 Educators in Patna and Siliguri
Artificial Intelligence, particularly Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is taking shape as a pervasive phenomenon in K-12 Education in India. With GenAI being adopted for easing teacher workload and enhancing student learning, what remains unclear are stances of educators from schooling structures beyond well-resourced and metropolitan contexts in India. The study examines teacher voices from Patna (Bihar) and Siliguri (West Bengal), and how they understand AI not as a technological intervention or means of optimization, but as a phenomena that teachers adapt, resist, regulate, and negotiate within their everyday teaching practices. Drawing on interviews conducted in February–March 2026 with 16 K–12 educators from private schools across Patna and Siliguri, this study uses reflexive thematic analysis, informed by Ecological Teacher Agency and an Enactivist Account of Agency, and investigates educators’ perspectives and AI practices with respect to (i) their perception of AI within the context of teaching and learning ; (ii) their practical AI applications in both classroom instruction and back-end preparation ; (iii) their negotiation of AI use in relation to professional judgement, autonomy and creative agency; (iv) their concerns around student AI dependency, ethical implications, and changing dynamics with students; and (v) teachers perceived needs for AI training and institutional support. The research concludes that AI’s meaningful integration in K-12 schools depend upon empowering teachers as critically aware sense-makers of what AI is and what it can or fails to do, within a supported institutional system.