A Freirean Reckoning with AI and Capitalism in the Pursuit of Humanising Education across Technology-Mediated Contexts

Abstract

This commentary examines the integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into contemporary education through a Freirean lens, arguing that AI does not disrupt schooling so much as extends a neoliberalised system manipulated by efficiency, standardisation, and performative learning. Far from signalling a pedagogical shift, AI thrives in environments where intellectual struggle and dialogic inquiry have long been subordinated to outcomes-based accountability. Situating this critique within the field of open and distance learning (ODL), this article highlights how AI may exacerbate pressures towards automation, scale, and depersonalised instruction, particularly in development contexts where ODL is positioned as a mechanism for widening access. Through classroom and ODL-based examples, this commentary contends that the ethical task is not to reject AI but to reimagine its use in ways that deepen humanisation, cultivate agency, and strengthen relational forms of learning. It concludes with implications for ODL practitioners committed to equity, access, and social transformation.