Researching China's Pre‐Service Teachers' Perceptions of <scp>AI</scp> Education for K‐12: An Elicited Metaphor Analysis

ABSTRACT As Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) increasingly becomes integral to educational development, understanding how future educators perceive AI Education ( AIEd ) is crucial for the effective implementation of AI in school curricula to embed AI technologies throughout the age ranges of kindergarten to grade 12 (K‐12). The present study employed elicited metaphor analysis ( EMA ), an innovative qualitative method that elicits participants' conceptualisations through metaphors, to examine the perspectives of pre‐service teachers in China towards AIEd in K‐12. We analysed a database of 463 metaphors with entailments, obtained via an online questionnaire returned by 265 pre‐service teachers in three Normal Universities in China. Seven major conceptual themes were identified: AI is ‘Guidance’, ‘Growth’, ‘Resources’, ‘Discovery’, ‘Opportunity’, ‘Challenge’ and has a ‘Dual Nature’ of exerting both positive and negative influences on education. Sentiment analysis revealed the pre‐service teachers' overall attitudes towards AI as positive (62%), negative (12%) and ambiguous or neutral (26%). It was also found that among participants' background factors, attitudinal differences were identified between those who have received AIEd exposure in classrooms and those who have not. These seem indicative of a cohort of future educators' opinions regarding AIEd in China. These findings could inform teacher training or policymaking, highlighting that clear policies are needed to regulate AI use in classrooms, AI education should be progressively integrated into K‐12 curricula, and pre‐service teachers' existing AI expertise should be acknowledged earlier in their training, as they in the future could be AI mediators for professional colleagues.