Philosophical-Educational Rethinking of the Concept of the Teacher in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: A Qualitative Inquiry into Educational Authority, Care, and the Educational Relationship

Abstract

This study aimed to philosophically and educationally rethink the concept of the teacher in the age of artificial intelligence by examining how educational authority, care, and the educational relationship are being redefined in AI-mediated educational environments. This qualitative study employed an interpretive orientation and reflective thematic analysis. The participants were 20 teachers, school principals and educational deputies, university faculty members in education, teacher educators, and specialists in educational technology and artificial intelligence in Tehran, selected through purposive maximum-variation sampling. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews, and sampling continued until conceptual saturation was achieved. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed concurrently with data collection. Open coding, constant comparison, conceptual clustering, subtheme development, and construction of overarching themes were conducted using MAXQDA 2024. Credibility and analytical rigor were enhanced through participant feedback, peer review, detailed documentation of analytical decisions, and systematic comparison across interviews. The findings revealed three fundamental transformations in the concept of the teacher in the age of AI. First, educational authority shifted from knowledge monopoly toward interpretive, critical, and ethical authority grounded in judgment and responsibility. Second, care emerged as an irreducibly human and relational core of teaching, encompassing recognition, sensitivity to learners’ vulnerability, dignity, and ethical responsiveness. Third, the educational relationship was reconfigured from one-way knowledge transmission toward learning guidance, collaborative meaning-making, and human accompaniment. The findings further indicated that meaningful AI integration requires preservation of teachers’ professional agency and resistance to transferring sensitive educational decisions entirely to algorithmic systems. Artificial intelligence does not eliminate the need for teachers; rather, it intensifies the need to redefine their role. The distinctive educational value of teachers increasingly lies in ethical judgment, contextual interpretation, care, professional responsibility, and the capacity to create meaningful human relationships through which learning, agency, and personal development can occur.