Exploring the Meaning of Creative Agency in Art Classes Using Posthumanism-Based Generative AI: A Middle School Case Study

This study examined changes in middle school students perceptions of artificial intelligence and their sense of creative agency through a posthumanism-based art class employing generative AI. The class was designed and implemented within a posthumanist learning framework, incorporating Braidotti’s concept of becoming-earth and the overarching theme of ecology. Initially, students perceived AI as a technical tool; however, through generating and interpreting images using emotion-based prompts, they came to regard it as both an affective and a collaborative medium for creation. In this process, they recognised that creative agency could move beyond a human-centred framework to encompass affective relationships between human and non-human actors. These findings indicate that AI-based art classes can broaden creative pedagogy beyond human-centred paradigms and inform future-oriented curriculum design.