Leading Through the AI Dilemma in Schools
At this month’s Network of Inquiry and Indigenous Education Collective Conversations, a principal brought forward a challenge that many school leaders are now facing. A teacher suspected a student had used AI to complete an assignment. An AI checker suggested the work was 100% machine-generated. The The student insisted it was their own. Parents became upset, and a fractured relationship ensued between the family and school.
Learning Through Wise Crowds
The situation was explored through a Wise Crowds protocol, in which a group of educators listened to the problem of practice, asked clarifying questions, and discussed possible perspectives while the presenter listened quietly.
What emerged was a set of insights that reframed the issue.
Participants noted:
AI detection tools are unreliable and should not be treated as definitive evidence.
Assignment design matters more than surveillance.
Students need guidance on how to use AI responsibly, not simply rules forbidding it.
Assessment should emphasize thinking and learning processes rather than polished final products.
Relationships with students and parents must remain central when navigating uncertainty.
In short, the conversation shifted from policing AI to redesigning learning.
Practical Design Tips That Emerged
Several practical strategies surfaced during the conversation:
Design assignments with draft stages and checkpoints.
Ask students to reflect on how they used AI.
Focus assessment on process and thinking, not just final products.
Provide clear expectations about when AI can be used and when it cannot.
Incorporate in-class writing or discussion components when assessing key ideas.
Teach students to critically evaluate AI output.
Frame AI as a tool for learning, not just a shortcut to avoid work.
But practical tips alone are not enough. What this situation requires is intentional leadership design, which involves (re)framing the inquiry and engaging in leadership moves.
Framing the Inquiry
It became evident that the real problem is: How do we design learning, assessment, and relationships in an era where AI is part of our lives?
Complex scenarios like this benefit from slowing down and framing the issue through the Spiral of Inquiry—a leadership-for-learning tool and the engine for thoughtful and inclusive change. Leaders can design professional learning that asks:
What is going on for our learners and teachers as AI becomes part of everyday life?
How are our assessment practices holding up in this new context?
What do students need to learn about responsible use of AI tools?
How can we design learning experiences that allow students to demonstrate authentic thinking?
The challenge becomes an invitation to scan, focus, develop a hunch, learn, and take action together. The Spiral helps leaders surface the moral purpose, assumptions, and determine the cohesive actions worth testing before evaluating whether they are making enough of a difference.
Leaders would benefit from engaging in the Spiral on a continual basis, honouring learner voice and agency through bottom-up design. To further support an inquiry stance, four leadership moves may prove useful.
Four Leadership Moves for Navigating the AI Challenge
When challenges like this arise, leaders can focus on four key moves.
1. Stabilize the Relationship
When tensions rise between teachers, students, and families, the first leadership move is to restore trust. This means acknowledging uncertainty, listening carefully, and ensuring that everyone feels heard.
The goal is not to determine who is right, but to ensure the community can continue learning together.
Liberating Structure to use with staff: What, So What, Now What
This simple structure allows teams to reflect on incidents like this by asking:
What happened?
Why does it matter?
What should we do differently moving forward?
It helps shift conversations from blame toward shared learning.
2. Reframe the Issue
AI often triggers fear about cheating or academic integrity. But the deeper issue is not AI itself, but how we design learning.
The leadership move here is reframing the conversation from “How do we do when we catch students?” to “What kind of learning are we designing?”
If the goal is authentic thinking, creativity, and problem solving, then assessment design must evolve.
Liberating Structure to use with staff: TRIZ
TRIZ asks participants to imagine:
What would we do if we wanted to guarantee students used AI to bypass thinking?
Which of those things are we currently doing?
What should we stop doing?
This playful exercise often reveals how traditional assignments unintentionally invite AI misuse.
3. Build Staff Understanding
Many educators feel both curious and threatened by AI. Leaders can support staff by creating safe spaces for exploration.
Professional learning should focus on:
how AI works
when it is helpful for learning
when it undermines learning
how assessment design can adapt
The goal is to build collective confidence, not just individual expertise.
Liberating Structure to use with staff: 1-2-4-All
Staff first reflect individually on a question such as:
What do students need to learn about responsible AI use?
They then discuss ideas in pairs, small groups, and finally share insights with the whole group. This structure surfaces diverse perspectives and builds shared understanding quickly.
4. Create Shared Expectations
Finally, leaders can guide staff toward shared agreements about responsible AI use. Rather than imposing rules, this work is best done through co-creation, where staff collectively define what responsible use looks like in their context.
Shared expectations might clarify:
when AI can support brainstorming or editing
when AI use must be cited or acknowledged
when learning tasks require independent thinking
how expectations are communicated clearly to students and families
Shared expectations reduce confusion, support fairness across classrooms, and create coherence across the school.
Liberating Structure to use with staff: Ecocycle Planning
Using Ecocycle Planning, teams examine current practices and ask:
What existing practices should we keep nurturing?
What practices around AI use need to grow or evolve?
What practices should we stop doing because they invite misuse?
What new approaches to assessment or instruction should we experiment with?
This structure helps schools move toward intentional redesign of learning practices.
Designing the Future of Learning
Moments like this remind us that leadership is not about solving problems alone, but about designing the conditions for collective learning.
AI will continue to evolve. Assumptions will continually need to be surfaced. Courageous conversations will need to occur with staff and with the school community. What will matter most is whether schools cultivate cultures where educators can explore new challenges together, ask better questions, and redesign learning in response. It takes the Spiral of Inquiry and facilitation protocols such as Liberating Structures to engage in structured conversations that matter.
In that sense, this problem—like all complex problems—reveals the power of inquiry, collaboration, and thoughtful leadership design.
*AI was used as a thought partner and to support clarity and flow.