Between Affordance and Anxiety: How Part-Time Honours Students Navigate Artificial Intelligence Tools in South African Postgraduate Education

The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in higher education has generated significant scholarly debate about their pedagogical implications, ethical dimensions, and impact on student learning. This qualitative case study explores the experiences of twelve part-time honours students at a South African university as they navigate AI tools in the context of their postgraduate academic work. Participants were practising teachers enrolled in honours programmes across multiple education disciplines, including curriculum studies, science education, leadership and management, inclusive education, and education studies. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Findings reveal that students engage with AI tools primarily for research support, academic writing, and knowledge construction, yet grapple with concerns related to academic integrity, over-reliance, and the adequacy of AI-generated content. Students also highlighted the tension between the affordances of AI and the critical thinking demands of postgraduate scholarship. The study calls for institutional frameworks that promote responsible and critically informed AI use within blended learning contexts in South African higher education.