AI, pedagogical judgment, and inequality in teaching and learning in a Global South HE system

Generative artificial intelligence is reshaping higher education, raising pedagogical, ethical, and social questions salient in resource-constrained Global South contexts. Existing research has focused mainly on Global North settings, with less attention to how actors in Global South higher education systems interpret and negotiate AI adoption amid infrastructural inequalities. Drawing on Technology Frames of Reference, critical pedagogy and postcolonial digital literacy, this study examines how students and staff in Mauritius, a small island developing state with postcolonial inheritances and uneven digitalisation, frame the nature, use, and strategic role of AI in higher education. Four student focus groups (n = 35) and 20 lecturer interviews were analysed inductively. Findings reveal shared assistant-oriented framings, alongside divergent pedagogical experiences shaped by licensing disparities, literacy gaps, and policy ambiguity. Extending Technology Frames of Reference, the study shows that material access and postcolonial conditions are constitutive of technology frames, with global AI discourses refracted through local socio-technical ecologies.