Embracing Authenticity and AI in Teacher Education: ATEE 2025, Dublin

Infographic showing highlights of the ATEE Conference 2025 in Dublin, focusing on AI in teacher education and the DRONE Project.

From 26 to 29 August 2025, Dublin welcomed professional educators, researchers, and policymakers from across the globe to the ATEE Annual Conference, hosted at the Marino Institute of Education, a campus set in the historic Lord Charlemont’s estate. The conference’s theme, “The Making of Authentic Teachers in Ages of Artificiality?”, framed a vibrant exploration of authenticity amid the rise of AI, social media, and the rapid evolution of teacher identities.

I was there as a representative of Parents International. My perspective took shape in a paper presentation titled “Teachers’ digital literacy and attitudes towards AI,” grounded in insights from the Erasmus+ DRONE Project, an initiative designed to support professional educators as they navigate AI, media literacy, and disinformation among vulnerable adolescents.

Why ATEE matters

The Association for Teacher Education in Europe (ATEE) Annual Conference is one of Europe’s most influential fora for teacher education. Each year it gathers academics, policymakers, and practitioners to exchange research and practice on contemporary challenges — from ethics in AI to inclusive pedagogy and the professional identity of teachers. Its rotating locations keep the conversation diverse and grounded in local realities, while its commitment to research-informed practice strengthens the link between university departments and classroom implementation. For a field being reshaped by generative AI, platform algorithms, and shifting social expectations, ATEE acts as a compass: it helps align initial teacher education and in-service professional development with the evolving needs of learners, families, and society.

In Dublin’s academic neighbourhood of Drumcondra, this year’s edition convened over 300 participants from 56 countries, creating a dense, international dialogue. Sessions on AI’s expanding role in education, creative pedagogies, and teacher identity proved especially fertile for cross-pollination between theory and practice.

Introducing the DRONE Project

DRONE — short for “Teacher and school leaders training to promote Digital liteRacy and combat the spread of disinformation among vulNerable groups of adolEscents” — is an Erasmus+ initiative focused on building the digital literacy, critical-thinking, and ethical-AI capacities of school communities. It equips school leaders, professional educators, students (11–18), parents/guardians, and policymakers with practical training and resources to tackle disinformation and navigate the online world critically. At its core are four strands of work: identifying gaps in current provision; developing fit-for-purpose materials; delivering large-scale training; and sustaining impact through networks and policy guidance.

Beyond capacity-building, DRONE aims to achieve individual, organisational, and systemic impact across partner countries by integrating its materials into provider curricula, producing evidence-based policy guidelines for digital citizenship in school communities, and cultivating a Europe-wide network of ambassadors to sustain momentum.

Presenting on digital literacy and AI attitudes

Against this backdrop, my presentation offered an evidence-informed exploration of how professional educators are developing digital literacy and what their prevailing attitudes toward AI may signal for the future of education. Drawing on DRONE’s mixed-methods research and training frameworks, I highlighted both challenges and opportunities — among them disparities in familiarity with AI tools, concerns about algorithmic bias and data privacy, and the urgency of embedding ethical literacy into professional learning.

The floor discussion was lively and practical. Colleagues asked: How can initial teacher education and continuous professional development better scaffold AI and media-literacy learning? What does assessment look like when AI is present in everyday tasks? How do we partner with families to address disinformation without moral panic? And what are effective school-level protocols for ensuring transparency, inclusivity, and student agency when AI enters the classroom workflow?

Session highlights: authenticity in an age of artificiality

A number of sessions resonated with DRONE’s mission:

Authenticity and professional judgement. Several presenters argued that authenticity is less about spontaneity and more about truthful professional judgement: the ability to explain and justify decisions in light of evidence, ethics, and learner wellbeing. That dovetails with DRONE’s emphasis on critical evaluation of information and transparent decision-making.
AI as amplifier, not substitute. Panels cautioned against treating AI as a replacement for human expertise, positioning it instead as an amplifier of professional practice when used critically — e.g., for formative feedback patterns, accessible materials, or reflective analysis of pupil work — provided that professional educators retain agency, audit tools, and make judgement calls on when not to use AI.
Community literacy and partnership. Discussions stressed that school impact depends on wider ecosystems: partnerships with families and community organisations are essential to counter disinformation, model responsible digital habits, and keep interventions culturally grounded. This echoes DRONE’s multi-stakeholder design and its attention to vulnerable adolescent groups.

Place and purpose: Dublin as a learning city

Beyond formal sessions, the city itself provided a narrative thread. A civic welcome underscored Dublin as a crossroads of history, ideas, and education — an apt metaphor for a conference about authenticity in complex times. Walking through Temple Bar’s cobbled lanes or pausing in Georgian squares, it felt natural to connect the place-making of a learning city with the identity-making of a profession under pressure yet full of possibility.

What this means for professional learning

One of the conference’s clearest takeaways is that digital literacy and AI competence are now core professional literacies, not add-ons. That means:

Embedding AI/media-literacy outcomes into initial teacher education and mentoring frameworks.
Providing structured, practice-proximate training for in-service staff — aligned with subject didactics, safeguarding policies, and accessibility standards.
Designing school-wide approaches that include parents and students as partners, recognising that adolescents live in hybrid online/offline worlds where identity, risk, and opportunity are intertwined.
Investing in ethical capacity: bias awareness, data protection basics, and practical routines for transparency (e.g., model cards, usage logs, consent patterns).

DRONE’s materials and research are well-positioned to support these shifts, offering ready-to-use tools for staff meetings, departmental CPD, and classroom implementation, alongside guidance for leadership teams and parent engagement. (mydroneproject.eu, esha.org)

Looking ahead

As DRONE advances toward piloting its training across Europe and Ukraine, the perspectives gained at ATEE 2025 affirm the urgency of equipping professional educators with the confidence and competence to use AI ethically and authentically. Our next steps prioritise: finalising research outputs; tailoring training modules to diverse school contexts; and working with partners to integrate resources into existing professional-learning pathways and policy frameworks. (mydroneproject.eu)

Conferences like ATEE remind us that authenticity isn’t nostalgia for a pre-digital past — it’s integrity in practice: clarity about purposes, responsibility for consequences, and commitment to relationships with learners and families. The task now is to keep that integrity at the centre of technological change. With DRONE’s ecosystem approach — supporting professional educators, students, parents/guardians, school leaders, and policymakers — we can build school communities that are media-resilient, critically informed, and future-ready.

Aristidis Protopsaltis, PhD