Teachers' perceptions and agency in implementation of artificial intelligence: The case of Uzbekistan

The adoption of AI technologies, such as Generative AI (GenAI), follows a "continuum", starting with awareness and developing into active engagement and leadership. The extent of its successful implementation, its impact on educators' evolving roles, and the actual picture in the field need to be scrutinized. The effects of these dramatic changes are best known to those at the micro level - teachers in the classroom. Therefore, to explore the status quo in the Uzbekistani context, the current study explored teachers' perceptions from 34 local and international higher education institutions representing five regions of the country. An online questionnaire was employed to survey English for Academic Purposes and English for Specific Purposes teachers' (N =141) general perceptions and experiences with AI. Meanwhile, adding breadth and depth to the research question, semi-structured interviews informed by Zhai's (2024) conceptual framework were used to probe the experiences of teachers' (n =10) attitudes and engagement with GenAI in their teaching activities and beyond. The findings reveal that the teachers are generally positive about implementing AI technologies in the educational process and have attained a convincing degree of familiarity with various tools for various pedagogical purposes. Also, teachers' responses validated that they have attained GenAI Adopter and GenAI Collaborator roles but have yet to gain more knowledge and expertise to become GenAI Innovators.