From AI Adoption to Pedagogical Intelligence: Modeling Teacher Agency, Ethics and Innovation in Malaysian
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21236607Keywords:
generative AI, pedagogical intelligence, teacher agency, ethical confidence, Malaysian education.Abstract
This mixed-methods empirical study examined how generative artificial intelligence (AI) readiness influences ethical confidence, teacher agency and pedagogical innovation among Malaysian primary school teachers. A sequential explanatory design was employed involving a quantitative survey of 384 teachers, followed by semi-structured interviews with 25 teachers to deepen interpretation of the statistical findings. Quantitative results indicated that generative AI readiness was positively associated with ethical confidence, teacher agency and pedagogical innovation. Ethical confidence mediated the relationship between AI readiness and teacher agency, while teacher agency mediated the relationship between ethical confidence and pedagogical innovation. Qualitative findings revealed that teachers perceived generative AI as a supportive tool for lesson planning, differentiated instruction and creative teaching materials, but stressed the need for professional judgment in verifying and adapting AI-generated outputs. The study contributes a pedagogical intelligence model that positions ethically confident and agentic teachers as central to responsible AI-supported educational innovation in primary schools.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Zaheril Zainudin, Numuma Kamarina Jamil, Roselan Baki, Mohd Sofian Omar Fauzee
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