Empowering pre-service teachers with generative AI: a GenAI-TPACK-based approach to digital storytelling

This qualitative study adopts an experience-oriented design informed by phenomenological principles to explore pre-service primary teachers’ experiences with AI-supported digital storytelling. Going beyond the traditional TPACK framework, the study is grounded in the recently proposed GenAI-TPACK model, highlighting the evolving interaction of technological, pedagogical, content, and ethical domains. It investigates how teacher candidates integrated generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and Suno AI into storytelling practices aligned with national curriculum objectives. The participants included 40 second-year pre-service teachers at a public university in Türkiye during the 2024–2025 academic year. Data were collected via a Google Forms-based open-ended response form and reflective reports. Digital stories were used to contextualize the learning process, but they were not systematically analyzed. The analysis was conducted using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicate that participants reported enhancements in creative thinking, narrative development, and multimodal literacy. Candidates used AI for plot generation, visual and audio design, and curriculum-aligned instructional planning, yet they also encountered challenges related to prompt clarity, language precision, and ethical considerations (e.g., copyright and data use). Overall, the experience fostered reflective pedagogical thinking and supported the design of innovative, curriculum-relevant, and ethically informed learning activities. This study contributes to teacher education by showing how pre-service teachers used GenAI-TPACK-related knowledge within a scaffolded 14-week digital storytelling course, particularly when making prompt-mediated design decisions, iteratively refining multimodal outputs, and attending to ethical considerations such as copyright and responsible use. Pre-service teachers used GenAI tools for creative and curriculum-aligned storytelling. The GenAI-TPACK framework supported the integration of AI in authentic pedagogy. Participants adapted AI-generated content based on students’ developmental needs. Ethical awareness and copyright sensitivity emerged as active pedagogical concerns. GenAI tools functioned as digital collaborators, not just technical assistants.