Teachers’ Uses and Perceptions of Generative AI in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany: A DigCompEdu-Informed Analysis

The diffusion of generative artificial intelligence has moved educational debate beyond access to new tools, placing teacher work, pedagogical mediation, assessment, and digital competence under renewed pressure. This article examines teachers’ perceptions, declared uses, and forms of engagement with generative AI in Gymnasien (academic-track secondary schools) and Gesamtschulen (comprehensive secondary schools) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The study is based on an anonymous and voluntary online questionnaire circulated through school leaderships. The operational database comprised 204 records, while the main analysis was based on 156 completed questionnaires. Closed-item responses were examined through descriptive statistics and interpreted through DigCompEdu and its AI-related supplement. The findings indicate an asymmetrical incorporation of generative AI across teachers’ work. Its presence is stronger in preparation, organisation, professional reflection, and risk awareness than in direct classroom mediation, process-oriented assessment, and institutionally supported student use. The strongest contrasts concern perceived student overreliance on AI-generated answers, the need to adapt assessment practices, limited school-level guidance, and weak use of AI-supported process monitoring. Rather than interpreting this imbalance as a simple delay in adoption, the article argues that teacher competence in relation to generative AI is produced through the interaction between professional judgement, pedagogical purposes, and institutional conditions. It therefore cannot be reduced to an individual technical attribute.