Governing the unseen: A systematic review of AI literacy among language teachers in higher education

This systematic review is a synthesis of 32 empirical and conceptual studies published between December 2022 and March 2026 to investigate AI literacy among language teachers in higher education. The review has answered four research questions related to conceptualisations of AI literacy, pedagogical practices and professional-development models, assessment approaches, and reported outcomes, challenges, and gaps guided by the theoretical lens of governing the unseen, which prefigures institutional policies. Based on PRISMA 2020, the systematic search of ERIC, the British Educational Index, and Web of Science resulted in the identification of studies, which were subjected to thematic synthesis, based on the critical policy and sociomaterial lenses. The results show that AI literacy is largely conceptualised in terms of competency-based, multi-dimensional models, but critical and domain-specific dimensions are not well-developed. Professional development practices are often unstructured and not well planned. Assessment often relies on self-report tools, with limited focus on ethical and critical skills. Limited institutional support, unequal access to resources, unclear ethical guidelines, and shared or unclear responsibility can reduce positive individual outcomes, such as increased confidence and innovative teaching practices. The review concludes that the development of AI literacy tends to be built largely through individual effort and ad-hoc experimentation, while institutional governance structures that could make it durable and equitable remain underdeveloped. The available evidence suggests that sustainable AI literacy development requires structural governance rather than individual upskilling. Policy, practice, and future research implications are discussed, with the importance of longitudinal, linguistically diverse, and governance-oriented scholarship.