AI Literacy for FSL Teachers: Scholarly Evidence and Practitioner Landscape (Year 1)

The rapid expansion of publicly available artificial intelligence tools has prompted urgent calls to ensure educators are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and ethical awareness needed to integrate AI responsibly and e ectively into their practice (Kohnke et al., 2025; Sperling et al., 2024). French as a Second Language teachers in Canadian schools occupy a particularly underserved position within this landscape: the professional development and AI literacy resources that do exist are rarely designed with their specific linguistic, curricular, and bilingual context in mind. This five-year SSHRC-funded project addresses that gap directly by co-designing AI literacy professional development modules with Ontario and Québec FSL teachers, grounded in sociocultural theories of learning (Lantolf, 2015; Vygotsky, 1986), Design-Based Implementation Research (DBIR) methodology (Fishman et al., 2013), and the UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Teachers (Miao & Cukurova, 2024). Throughout the project, AI literacy is understood in line with Long and Magerko (2020) as the set of competencies that enables individuals to critically evaluate AI technologies, communicate and collaborate e ectively with AI, and use AI as a tool in educational and professional contexts.  

Year 1 of the project requires two distinct lines of documentary inquiry to address the following questions: What does the research literature say about AI literacy for language teachers? Which AI literacy competency frameworks appear to best translate to the FSL context? What survey instruments exist which can be used to assess FSL teachers' AI literacy needs? And what AI literacy resources and professional networks already exist for Ontario FSL teachers?  

The tasks will involve a systematic review of literature on AI literacy in language education contexts, focusing on FSL teachers in Canada and drawing on databases identified with the supervisor (ex. ERIC, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, CAIRN) covering publications from 2018 to 2026 published in both English and French. Students will produce an annotated Zotero database (minimum 60 sources) + 1,500–2,000-word written synthesis associated with specific assigned research questions. They will also identify and compare major AI literacy competency frameworks for teachers — UNESCO (Miao & Cukurova, 2024), Long and Magerko (2020), Ng et al. (2022), Sperling et al. (2024) — using structured criteria provided at orientation (FSL applicability, ethical components, classroompractice grounding, progression staging, bilingual context). This work will result in a structured comparison table + 500–800-word synthesis note with preliminary recommendations. 

Supervision for each position consists of a 90-minute orientation, weekly check-ins, and one 60minute mid-point review tied to first drafts of deliverables. At orientation, the supervisor will provide search parameters, deliverable templates, and evaluation criteria for tasks. Mandatory training and showcase preparation are managed by the AHL 3900 program. 

Students participating in this project will contribute to an ongoing, SSHRC-funded national research initiative at its most formative stage and will be formally acknowledged in relevant project outputs and publications. The positions develop valuable research skills including experience helping to review the literature and build the documentary database for a research project, o ering direct preparation for graduate work in applied linguistics, language education, or education policy. 

• Systematic literature review and advanced reference management (Zotero)
• Comparative analysis of conceptual and policy frameworks 
• Bilingual academic reading and synthesis ⁃Environmental and landscape scanning
• Stakeholder mapping and partnership analysis
• Annotated resource inventory development 

Students participating in this project will contribute to the Year 1 deliverables of a SSHRC-funded project and will be acknowledged in project publications and conference presentations. Consistent with the cumulative design of the DBIR methodology, the evidence base and practitioner insights assembled in Year 1 will inform subsequent co-design cycles. As such, students participating in this project will help shape the frameworks, the workshop content, the recruitment strategy, and the development of future AI literacy professional development modules for Ontario FSL teachers. 

Fishman, B., Penuel, W., Allen, A., Cheng, B., & Sabelli, N. (2013). Design-based implementation research: An emerging model for transforming the relationship of research and practice. National Society for the Study of Education, 112(2), 136–156. 

Le Bouthillier, J., Gérin-Lajoie, D., & Cormier, M. (2024). Bilingualism, language policy, and FSL education in Canada: Current challenges and future directions. Canadian Heritage / Patrimoine canadien. 

Long, D., & Magerko, B. (2020). What is AI literacy? Competencies and design considerations. Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376727 

Miao, F., & Cukurova, M. (2024). AI competency framework for teachers. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.54675/ZKPD3800 

Ng, D. T. K., Leung, J. K. L., Chu, S. K. W., & Qiao, M. S. (2022). Defining AI literacy: An exploratory review of existing definitions and discussions. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 2, 100041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2021.100041 

Sperling, R., Rubinstein-Avila, E., & Berson, I. (2024). AI literacy frameworks for K–12 and teacher education: A critical review. Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, 40(1), 4–19.