Why think historically when AI can do it? Understanding the relationship between generative artificial intelligence and history teacher identity

The advent of generative artificial intelligence technologies that can create high-level texts effectively mimicking historical thinking has raised critical questions for history educators. While much of the existing literature related to history education and generative artificial intelligence has studied history teachers’ need to develop skills to keep up with the new technology, this article seeks to understand history teachers’ perspectives concerning their purpose and their profession in relation to generative artificial intelligence. Drawing on interviews with history teachers in British Columbia, Canada, this article demonstrates the ways in which the introduction of generative artificial intelligence created conditions of significant uncertainty for history teachers and the ways teachers’ self-understandings were renegotiated under these conditions. Participants’ perspectives ranged from promoting the need to ‘leverage’ historical thinking to understand generative artificial intelligence, to finding a renewed sense of purpose in helping students ‘think along the way’, to building students’ human capacities to defend against techno-capitalism. Rather than indicating an end to the need for historical thinking, teachers seemed to view generative artificial intelligence as a professional call to arms of sorts, emphasising the increased value of their work and their profession in the age of artificial intelligence.