Teachers’ AI Literacy and Practices of Repair in Superdiverse Adult Learning and Education

This paper investigates how situated AI literacy is conceptualised and enacted in complex and heterogeneous ed­ucational environments such as Adult Education Centres in Italy. Qualitative data from semi-structured inter­views with ten headmasters and open-ended responses from forty-five teachers to an online questionnaire were thematically analysed. The findings suggest that headmasters advocate for more than mere technical training, articulating context-sensitive and practice-oriented views of teachers’ professional development in AI literacy. Teachers’ descriptions of their interactions with GenAI illustrate practices of evaluating, adjusting, and modi­fying AI-generated content, suggesting that the development of AI literacy occurs through practices of repair and maintenance in artificial conversations. Therefore, this study suggests participatory action research as a valuable approach for teachers’ professional development in AI literacy to account for their practices while providing them with space and time for critical reflection and practical experimentation with Generative AI in superdiverse educational environments.