AI in inclusive education: teachers’ visions of future-oriented practices

This research explores teachers’ visions of inclusive and future-oriented education in 2040, focusing on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the delivery of inclusive education. Drawing on the narrative analysis of fifty essays written by Lithuanian high school teachers, the study defines the dimensions of teachers’ agency, reflects on their capabilities to reinterpret the inclusiveness of education in the future and strengthen long-term and holistic thinking. The teachers assessed AI not only in terms of personal efficiency and meeting individual student needs, but also in relation to broader social responsibilities, and its potential to contribute to societal progress. Their visions of AI for inclusive education emphasized personalized learning while also raising questions about shared responsibility, care, and justice, amid technological change. The study extends existing research by showing that teachers’ orientation toward AI goes beyond acceptance of the technology and readiness to apply it and reflects on how they might envision and negotiate changes in inclusion, participation, and professional identity. By integrating futures studies with inclusive education, it conceptualizes futures thinking as an element of teacher agency and professional competence to shape inclusive AI-driven educational change.