Ally Rather Than Mere Utility: Reimagining the Teacher and Generative Artificial Intelligence Relationship in Design Education

Abstract

Advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) are reshaping how design ideas are generated, explored, and justified in Design and Technology (D&T) education. While research on GenAI is expanding rapidly, limited attention has been given to how human and technological actors co-shape creative processes in authentic design contexts, or how these tools reshape pedagogical practice and professional judgement. This qualitative case study investigates how pre-service and in-service D&T teachers engaged with GenAI-enabled tools—Fusion 360 generative design and ChatGPT 1.5—within makerspace-based design activities. Drawing on interviews, classroom observations, stimulated recall, and artefact analysis, the study examines how GenAI becomes pedagogically meaningful within iterative workflows characterised by constraint, comparison, and decision-making.

Findings show a shift from instrumental use toward dialogic, reflective engagement, where AI-generated outputs functioned as provocations rather than solutions. Teachers actively mediated GenAI through critique, justification, and ethical discussion, redistributing—but not relinquishing—pedagogical agency. Conceptualised through a sociomaterial and posthuman lens as orchestrated co-agency, these practices demonstrate how design learning emerges through negotiated relations among teachers, students, AI systems, and material constraints. The study contributes empirical insights into GenAI-mediated design pedagogy and offers implications for curriculum, assessment, and teacher education.