There are rising fears, among students, that AI is having a negative impact on work in the classroom, according to a report published by Oxford University Press this week.
The recent Oxford University Press (OUP) research (full report here) provides a timely snapshot of how young people are engaging with generative AI and what this means for literacy education. With eight in ten pupils using AI tools for schoolwork, yet fewer than half confident in identifying accurate information, the findings highlight an urgent need to strengthen critical literacy across all phases of education
The ability to question, interpret and evaluate digital texts has never been more vital. Generative AI creates fluent, plausible language that can obscure bias, stereotype or misinformation. Literacy teaching, therefore, must equip pupils to recognise how language and technology interact to shape meaning. As Blundell, Mukherjee and Nykvist (2025) note, teachers worldwide are already grappling with how to support students in using AI “effectively, responsibly, and safely.” This shared challenge reinforces that critical literacy is not an optional add-on, but a core component of preparing learners to participate ethically and thoughtfully in an AI-mediated world.
It is concerning that one in ten pupils believe AI limits their creative thinking and writing. Yet, as literacy educators, we can take a more hopeful view. Generative AI can also extend creative possibilities — offering stimulus for idea generation, new perspectives on narrative voice, or models for reflection and revision. The key is to work collaboratively with teachers, researchers, and pupils to explore how AI might support rather than suppress creativity. This aligns with findings from Nykvist’s classroom studies in Norway, where students used AI to receive immediate language feedback, a process that, when scaffolded, encouraged greater experimentation rather than passivity.
The OUP findings reveal pupils’ concerns about fairness and cheating, with 60% worrying AI encourages copying rather than original work. This invites a deeper conversation about what we assess and how. If AI can reproduce conventional essays, literacy assessment should evolve to recognise authentic processes of thinking and creating — oral reasoning, collaborative projects, multimodal texts, and reflective commentaries that foreground pupil voice. Such approaches could provide fairer, more transparent ways to value learning and originality.
Primary classrooms may be the ideal setting to explore AI’s creative and critical potential. Here, children’s curiosity and playfulness can underpin early digital literacy, encouraging them to question, test, and imagine. Integrating AI discussions into storymaking, shared writing, and talk-rich classrooms can lay the foundations for critical and creative literacy that endures throughout schooling.
Both the OUP report and the research by Blundell et al. (2025) emphasise that students and teachers need guidance, access, and professional development to use AI well. UKLA supports this call. Literacy in the AI age must encompass more than reading and writing; it involves interpretation, ethical reasoning, creativity, and dialogue. By working together across schools, research, and policy, we can ensure AI becomes a catalyst for deeper literacy learning — not a constraint upon it.
References
· Oxford University Press (2025). AI and Education Report (Survey of 2,000 UK pupils aged 13–18).
- Blundell, C. N., Mukherjee, M., & Nykvist, S. (2025). Adopting generative AI in K–12 teaching and learning: Australian teachers’ actions through the lens of innovation theory. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-025-13699-y