Reimagining Pedagogical Praxis through Philosophical Dialogue: A Hermeneutic Study of Critical Consciousness in AI Classrooms

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into education presents both opportunities and risks, offering efficiency yet potentially diminishing students’ critical consciousness. This study explores how pedagogical practices rooted in philosophical dialogue can cultivate critical awareness within AI-mediated elementary classrooms. Utilizing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, data were gathered from interviews, classroom observations, and student reflections involving eight participants. Three core themes emerged: (1) Being Heard Beyond the Algorithm, where students reclaimed personal voice amid digital automation; (2) Dialog as Disruption, showing how philosophical inquiry disrupted passive learning; and (3) Negotiating Meaning in AI-Augmented Classrooms, reflecting the development of students’ epistemic agency. The findings suggest that critical consciousness arises not from AI itself but from humanizing dialogue guided by reflective teachers. This study offers a conceptual shift: redefining the teacher’s role from a technological operator to a facilitator of subjectification, in line with Biesta’s and Freire’s emancipatory pedagogies. It contributes to post-digital discourse by underscoring the intersubjective nature of pedagogy and calls for dialogic curriculum designs in technology-rich learning environments.