Rethinking Teacher AI Literacy in the Age of Generative AI: From Technical Competence to Human–AI Professional Agency

Abstract

Generative AI is becoming embedded in lesson preparation, instructional design, assessment, feedback, and professional learning, shifting the question of teacher AI literacy from tool use to professional judgment. This conceptual commentary reviews the development of AI literacy and teacher AI literacy and focuses on four debates: general versus professional literacy, tool proficiency versus substantive literacy, technological augmentation versus professional judgment, and capability expansion versus professional deskilling. It reconceptualizes teacher AI literacy as an integrated professional capacity oriented toward educational purposes and bounded by ethical responsibility. A six-dimensional structure is proposed—understanding, applying, evaluating, regulating, collaborating, and taking responsibility—organized from basic technological understanding to professional judgment and human–AI agency. The article argues that mature teacher AI literacy is not indicated by greater dependence on AI, but by teachers’ ability to decide when AI should be used, how its outputs should be verified and adapted, and where its participation should stop.