On Care, Compassion & Dialogue: Humanising AI in Education

Aerts, Carla

doi:10.5281/zenodo.17290294

On Care, Compassion & Dialogue: Humanising AI in Education

Aerts, Carla

Publisher: Zenodo
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17290294
Repository: zenodo.org
Language: en

Abstract

This presentation argues for a fundamental reframing of AI's role in education, drawing on the work of Rupert Wegerif's Rethinking of Education Theory and Dialogic Pedagogies, Alison Gopnik's research on Care and Caregiving, and Martha Nussbaum's scholarship on Compassion. These perspectives suggest an alternative vision where AI serves not merely as a tool for individualised learning, but as a participant in collective dialogue that prioritises human relationships and community learning. Rather than positioning humans as passive elements "in-the-loop" of AI-driven systems, this approach places the learning community at the centre, with humans maintaining control while engaging AI in meaningful, caring, and compassionate dialogue. In this model, personalisation transforms into social learning as the fabric for education, creating educational environments where technology enhances rather than replaces the fundamentally human aspects of teaching and learning.

Full text

Carla Aerts, AIEOU - September 2025 Humanising AI in Education On Care, Compassion & Dialogue Care, Compassion & Dialogue •Coming from Practice: Call to Action •Humanising the Algorithm: NOT the “buddy syndrome” •Exploring a Human-AI Symbiosis, inspired by: •Professor Alison Gopnik: Care The Gardener and The Carpenter •Professor Martha Nüssbaum: Compassion Upheavals of Thought •Professor Rupert Wegerif: Dialogue and Dialogic Pedagogies Rethinking Educational Theory: Education as Expanding Dialogue Gardener v. Carpenter? Gopnik •Gardener: Nurturing, Caring, Freedom, Flourishing •Growing in an Unpredictable Way •Unstructured Play & Explorer •Unconditional (Love) & Secure Attachment •Carpenter: defining and giving form •Outcome-oriented, Predetermined •Current Education Model & Reinforced by AI •GenAI Prediction & Reinforcement Learning Models •Gardener: Developing into Independent Agents Compassion Nüssbaum •Alignment to Gopnik’s Care & Vulnerability •Not pity (Subservience) •Cognitive Capability •Foundation of Ethical Relationships •True Compassion: stems from Early Caregiving •Emotional Foundation of Relationships •Respect of Other’s Autonomy •Acknowledges Suﬀering •Excessive Personalisation promotes the opposite •Narrative Imagination crucial Dialogue & Dialogic Wegerif •Learning & Thinking: Dialogic Spaces •With Others •With Oneself •Multiple Perspectives & Perspective Taking •Thinking: a Dialogic Process •Emotional Foundation of Relationships •Emerging from Spaces In Between (Dialogic) •Recognition of Vulnerability & Diﬀerence •The Engine of Thinking itself •Where Meaningful Questions Get Asked Reclaiming Education Human Flourishing in Symbiosis with AI •GenAI in Education: Mentality of the Carpenter •Prediction •Outcome driven by Reinforcement •Lacks Development of Vulnerability & Compassion •Asymmetry in Emotional & Human Reciprocity •Humanising the Algorithm: Nurturing the Gardener •Allow the Gardener into relationship with GenAI •Recognise Vulnerability, Compassion in Diﬀerence •Promote Playfulness, Exploration, Imagination & •Socialised Personalisation: The In-between Space Carla Aerts https://www.trainofthought.me Thank You “The fruit of dialogic education is dialogic intelligence: not the ability to work alone to quickly answer questions set by others, but the capacity to participate meaningfully in shared thinking, driven by real questions that matter.” Wegerif LI