Reconfiguring Teachers’ Instructional Work in the Era of Generative Artificial Intelligence: A Systematic Review of Human–AI Collaboration in K–12 Classroom Teaching

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is profoundly reshaping K–12 classroom teaching and reconfiguring teachers’ instructional work.However, without a clear understanding of how teachers’ roles and responsibilities are changing, educators and policymakers may adopt GenAI in ways that may undermine pedagogical quality, diminish teacher agency, and increase inequities in student learning. A systematic understanding of these changes is therefore essential for guiding evidence-based teacher education, classroom practice, and policy design. Although research on this topic is growing, few studies systematically review how GenAI reshapes teachers’ work across the three instructional stages—planning, implementation, and assessment. This review synthesized 42 empirical studies to develop a conceptual framework of teacher–GenAI collaboration in K–12 classrooms. Building on this framework, it examines structural shifts in teachers’ responsibilities and the evolving basis of their classroom authority. Findings indicated that teacher–GenAI collaboration followed a division of labor based on their respective strengths and primarily operated within a human-centered interaction model. Teachers’ work has shifted in three ways—through the replacement of routine tasks, the reinforcement of judgment-based responsibilities, and the expansion into new AI-related duties—alongside a redefinition of their professional authority.These insights provide both empirical grounding and practical guidance for K–12 teaching practice, teacher education, and education policy-making, with significant implications for how educational systems adapt to the era of GenAI.