The 10th Education International (EI) World Congress, meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 29 July to 2 August 2024:
At the 8th EI World Congress in Bangkok, the resolutions on the Future of the Teaching Profession and on The Relationship Between Information and Communications Technology, Teacher Policy and Student Learning, already pointed to the increasing impact of technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) on education. In recent years, it has also become increasingly clear how the data collection associated with this digitisation creates additional challenges;
With the rise of digitisation and technological tools in education, education is becoming increasingly data-driven. This can be useful, as long as the data retrieved through those tools are collected with respect for the privacy of learners and teaching staff, it is clear how and for what purpose those data are collected and what will happen to them afterwards, e.g. how long they will be stored. Data collection should be done to improve the quality of education, not for profit;
Education is people work. It cannot be driven by data alone. Indeed, data often ignore the many contextual factors that impact the work of teaching staff and the learning of students. Data should always serve the work of teaching staff, not the other way around;
Today, there are too few guarantees that data collected locally, nationally and worldwide about and by education will always be handled in a correct and respectful manner. Nor is there a guarantee that this data will not be used to limit the autonomy of education personnel. This is why it is necessary for us as education unions to take action. Because again, it is crucial that educators and their unions take the lead.
Considering that:
Digital tools and Artificial Intelligence are here to stay, also in education, and continue to evolve rapidly;
They offer opportunities but also major challenges;
The use of digital tools and AI also involves large-scale data collection from learners and teaching staff;
It is often not clear who owns that data, what data is collected, how long it is kept and what the privacy implications are for learners and teaching staff;
The definition of what "privacy" is and how it should be protected worldwide may differ;
Processing that data can give private companies and governments great power over curricula and didactic forms of work in education and can lead to great standardization of education and threaten the autonomy of teaching staff and pedagogical freedom;
Digitization and data collection is not neutral. It influences the conception of what (good) education is and (co)shapes the teaching and learning process.
Concerned about:
Safeguarding children's and human rights, particularly with regard to protecting the privacy of teaching staff and learners;
Too technical an approach to education - Working in education is working with people;
The impact of profit-driven multinationals and governments on the content of education and on the work and autonomy of education personnel;
Biases and stereotypes based on big data that can lead to discriminatory outcomes, including in education;
Using AI-generated data too unilaterally in evaluating teaching staff and learners.
The 10th World Congress calls on EI and its member organisations:
To continue continuous research and lobbying efforts on the use of AI, technology tools and data collection in education worldwide;
To establish a clear definition of what "privacy" means;
To always point out that the right to privacy is part of universal children's rights and human rights;
To establish (ethical) guidelines for the use of AI;
To make the principle of human-in-command and human-in-the-loop paramount everywhere, especially when using data to evaluate staff and learners;
To establish a broad education and awareness campaign among all EI member organisations about:
The importance of privacy when introducing, purchasing and using digital tools;
The impact that governments and multinationals can have through data collection on the content of education, pedagogical freedom and the autonomy of educational personnel.
To require that any new digital tool for education, be required to undergo a DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment). Producers should be required to disclose that risk analysis. Schools/school groups/school boards can thus align their purchasing policies with this analysis;
To empower EI member organisations to negotiate privacy with governments and companies when purchasing digital tools;
To encourage member organisations to demand transparency on the use of data from the producers of digital tools;
To provide member organisations with tools to bring the use of data to the social dialogue even at the local level. Transparency must be ensured, enabling protection against the commercial or punitive use of data collected in the workplace as well as the right to be forgotten;
To use every possible opportunity, as the world trade union for education, to enforce the right to privacy of learners and education personnel with governments worldwide, through supranational organisations such as the UN, at summits such as the G8, and with private companies and major players in education technology. Data minimisation must be the rule;
To continue to insist as a world trade union on the importance of education professionals as the only true professionals in education. Data, AI and other technological tools should be at the service of professionals and not the other way around. Human first, not digital first.