Reclaiming Education in the Age of AI: A Handbook of Threat Briefs

Reclaiming Education in the Age of AI is a handbook of eleven threat briefs documenting the specific ways that artificial intelligence is reshaping — and in many cases damaging — education, with particular attention to the Arab world and the Global South. Each brief follows a two-part structure: Part I presents the threat in depth, grounded in current research and enriched with the voices of scholars, activists, and practitioners; Part II provides concrete safeguards and policy action cards for direct use in advocacy, reform, and institutional decision-making. Four annexes complement the briefs: a Human Competency Framework impact analysis mapping what each threat takes from learners; discussion and workshop prompts organised by audience; verified key quotes for advocacy; and a consolidated, cross-referenced reference list. The handbook addresses eleven interconnected threats: cognitive offloading and the erosion of deep thinking; the collapse of reading, writing, and literacy; the loss of authorship, voice, and creative integrity; disengagement and the erosion of the will to learn; deep-reading erosion and the rise of skim culture; human agency, autonomy, and meaning; power, governance, and inequality; ethical failures and bias; teacher deskilling and the loss of professional judgment; and the convergent threat to the developing child. Written with particular urgency for contexts shaped by colonial legacies, structural inequality, and the concentration of AI development power in a handful of corporations and countries, this handbook is offered as a living document and an invitation to dialogue, scrutiny, and continued contribution. It is designed for policymakers, educators, activists, researchers, students, parents, and all who believe that education must remain a human project.