Fair-AIEd: Participatory design approaches to creating ethical AI for international education and development

Warning of a global "learning crisis" in education, the World Bank recently claimed that without learning, education will fail to deliver on its promise to eliminate extreme poverty and create opportunity and prosperity for all. In response, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been proposed as having the potential to accelerate the process of achieving global education goals by reducing barriers to access education, automating management processes, and optimising methods for improvement of learning outcomes. In order to realise this vision, public and private partnerships (P3s) are being established where artificial intelligence in education (AIEd) initiatives are being rolled out in developing countries in an effort to spur innovative digital transformations in education.

However, while AI in and for education is claimed to bring many benefits, it also potentially brings as many challenges, including social, political, economic, and ethical consequences. While the AI solution has considerable merit, a significant problem facing policy-makers, practitioners, industry and other relevant stakeholders is that there are no tangible indications that AI in education will promote the desired shifts or evidence of the impact that introducing such systems might have on the social life of Global South school communities.

In light of this, the Fair-AIEd project will examine the impact of P3 initiatives on the use of AI in education in two African contexts as examples of emerging market economies (Ghana and South Africa). As well as the implications that AI systems might have for teaching and learning, the project will investigate potential benefits, harms, and risks associated with the leadership roles corporations play in design and use of AI within the educational practices of developing nations. A key successful outcome of this project will lie in establishing a baseline for further research which seeks to understand the impact of AI in education in the Global South. The project is guided by the following questions:

RQ1: What are the social, political, economic, pedagogical, and ethical implications of embedding AI systems into international education and development contexts?
RQ2: How can P3 partnerships most effectively channel machine learning to drive fair-AI innovation for international education and development?
RQ3: How can governments facilitate the creation of ethical AIEd policies for development goals?

Potential impacts will be explored using ethnographic case-studies. Informed by data obtained in the field, stakeholders from industry, government, academia, and civic groups will co-design an Algorithmic Impact Assessment tool that can be responsive to diverse populations. Using fair-ML (Machine Learning) as a point of reference, the framework will identify key cross-cultural values and social issues against which the implications of AI in education can be identified and evaluated. Design of the tool will incorporate a local adjustment resource to accommodate cultural, religious, or other sources of value differences that emerge from field work.

The Impact Assessment will be piloted in six K-12 schools across Ghana and South Africa to determine the effectiveness of the tool. The impacts of AI technologies will be listed, mapped, and analysed to illustrate key issues and concerns in this emerging landscape and to identify potential for positive educational change. Upon identification of benefits, harms and risks as they apply to AIEd, stakeholders will then co-design and develop a Fair-AIEd Trust Mark. The Mark will be useful for the educational leadership of developing nations as they choose corporate partners and technical systems for their schools. Development and use of this tool will also provide guidance to companies who are willing to commit to the ethical principles upon which their educational technology proposals will be judged in terms of localising software and understanding regulatory compliance.

The Fair-AIEd project works with partners in the UK, Ghana, and South Africa to examine the challenges of implementing Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd) in the Global South, and to generate practical solutions for transformational change. The study will engage school leaders, teachers, students, parents, industry, government, and other interested stakeholders in developing models of 'best practice'. Through these partnerships, the project seeks to strengthen capacity for research, innovation, and knowledge exchange in the UK and developing countries. The study has the potential for significant societal impact including and beyond academia:

Impact 1: The generation of new perspectives for future research on educational technology in schools and schooling;
Impact 2: Stimulating research collaboration and common agendas across academic disciplines and other key communities of practice;
Impact 3: Development of Fair AI-Ed research, innovation, and policy making that accounts for societal concerns and expectations;
Impact 4: Encouraging the effective use of knowledge, technology, and innovation to create opportunities for educational development, and community and business engagement, leading to new and improved processes and practices.

Academia: The study is designed to provide a detailed understanding of the impact of P3-driven AI initiatives on schooling. It will highlight whether, how, and why these technologies are being used in schools, and how schools, educational management, and other stakeholders might be better supported to make informed decisions about technology use. In this capacity, the study addresses issues of academic significance, providing a sociologically rigorous account of the role AI plays in international education and development. The project will also contribute to broader understandings of the changing nature of educational institutions, the professional practices of teachers, and the learning practices of students. Furthermore, the innovative methodology used to identify, map, and critically analyse complex socio-technical systems will be general enough to be reproduced in other contexts, representing an important methodological contribution of this project.

Civil society: Educators/practitioners, students, civil society, and interested citizens currently rely on discourses often popularised in pursuit of a specific outcome. Informed public debate requires the context the project seeks to provide: a contribution to public conversations about key ethical issues such as fair-AIEd driven by an intercultural ethics that is sensitive to local needs and expectations. This research has impact in a broader societal capacity by helping citizens understand the nature and implications of AI in schools.

Policy makers: We seek to provide a multi-national evidence base and framework for decision making that treats all stakeholders with appropriate weight. The project has potential to have a direct influence on national and global educational development policy (e.g. UNESCO), as well as on the behaviour of various organisations. Focused on applied policy development, the project will mobilise social science evidence to facilitate the creation of ethical policies and practices for international education and development aims.

Industry: Assessment tools and frameworks will be generated through participatory research to help stakeholders (e.g. Microsoft) comprehend the AI in Education landscape and to guide design of Fair-AIEd systems in the context of ethical and legal frameworks. These tools will be actionable and encourage reflexivity among stakeholders on the relationship between AI in educational development, innovation, and social/ethical concerns, especially by smaller entities lacking the ability to do such research themselves, but who would benefit from open access outputs. Assessment frameworks will inform new ways of thinking through technology development practices.