Partner Voices: David Edwards, General Secretary, Education International

David Edwards, PhD, is General Secretary of Education International (EI), the voice of teachers and education employees around the world. Through its 375 member organizations, Education International represents over 33 million teachers and education support personnel in 180 countries and territories. Dr Edwards also serves as Chair of the Council of Global Unions (CGU), which brings together the world's major global union federations to advance workers' rights and social justice worldwide. 

Dr Edwards has led Education International since 2018, following seven years as Deputy General Secretary, where he directed education policy, advocacy, research, and communications. 

Prior to joining Education International, Dr Edwards was an Associate Director at the National Education Association of the United States. He also worked as an Education Specialist at the Organization of American States and began his career as a public high school teacher. Follow Dr Edwards on LinkedIn. 

The UNICEF Partner Voices series highlights the strategic donors and partners driving the global digital education and learning innovation agenda. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping every aspect of our society, from how we do business to how we educate our children – and decisions about how it enters the classroom are being taken right now.  As teachers, governments, tech firms – and the children and communities they serve – have already been impacted by its development, what role must teachers hold in shaping and governing that agenda?  

David Edwards: Firstly, teachers must be at the center of decision making on AI use in education, not passive recipients of technology. In every education system, teachers are the experts on learning, child development, safety assessment, and inclusion. For AI to have a positive contribution to education, our experience and insights must guide the development and deployment of any AI tool into our classrooms.  

Secondly, AI must be used to enhance learning. We cannot allow the misguided enthusiasm for technology to distract from the fact that education is relational, not transactional. We must put pedagogy before technology and protect the teacher-student relationship that has always been the foundation of education. 

As the organized voice of the profession, teachers’ unions have a critical role to play. Social dialogue and collective bargaining mechanisms are essential, and we are mobilizing, sharing knowledge, and building the expertise we need to lead the development of regulatory frameworks that protect the human core of education, that are effective, and that provide safeguards for students and teachers.  

Anything short of that would be turning our children into guinea pigs for untested and unproven technology.  

Teachers are central to delivering on the promise of quality education for all (SDG4), yet AI tools are too often designed for them rather than with them. What would it take for educators everywhere, including in the most under-resourced and crisis-affected settings, to be genuine co-creators of these tools rather than end-users of them? 

David Edwards: We need to transition from designing for teachers to designing with teachers. Educators and their unions need to be involved at every stage of the process – from conception, through development, deployment, and evaluation of all AI tools that reach our classrooms.  

This means investing in the professional development of the teaching workforce, especially when it comes to digital competencies. 

It also means prioritizing equity from the very first moment. It is imperative that teachers from around the world are involved, especially those in under-resourced or crisis settings. We need a broad diversity of experiences in order to prevent AI tools from propagating biases against the most marginalized and vulnerable students and communities.  

And finally, it means focusing on open, public-interest technology and a collaborative process instead of commercial solutions. There are already promising models for co-creation and research through sandbox initiatives such as NOLAI in the Netherlands, where teachers, researchers and EdTech parters co-create and evaluate AI solutions to develop and assess AI tools grounded in educational needs.  

Fundamentally, we have to accept that co-creation takes time, resources, and participation, whereas companies are looking for rapid development, deployment, and quick profits. We cannot afford to move too fast and break things when what we risk breaking is our children. We have to be brave enough to pause and start small. 

There is a significant global teacher shortage, most acute on the frontlines of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises. What should be the role of AI and digital learning in extending the reach of the educators and facilitators who are already there, and what should we do to ensure investment keeps flowing into recruiting, training and retaining the teaching workforce we need? 

David Edwards: The teacher shortage is a workforce crisis. The UN High-Level Panel on the Teaching Profession has already put forward the blueprint for ending the shortage: investing in teachers, ensuring competitive salaries and good working conditions, providing quality training and continuous professional development, and guaranteeing labor rights.  

AI is not the solution to the teacher shortage, and it is not an easy way to save on education funding. Without teachers, it is a dangerous dead end, not a shortcut.  

AI can support teachers, but it cannot replace them.  

Research shows that when AI is used without pedagogical purpose or proper integration, it can eliminate the struggle through which learning is built. A student who consistently outsources thinking to AI is no longer learning. 

Teachers are now even more important, not less. Judgement matters more. Relationships matter more. Care and empathy matter more. The student-teacher relationship remains the irreplaceable core, and it cannot be automated. This is absolutely critical in crisis settings where children are particularly vulnerable. 

We welcome the initiatives of the United Nations, including the Secretary General’s call for countries to adopt an AI Child Safety Pledge and the Coalition for Children’s Rights and Protection in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. 

In the convergence of all those needs, what do you and Education International envision as the future of learning, and consequently, the future of teaching?  

David Edwards: We envision a human-centered future where technology supports learning, inclusion, and democratic societies. We want to create the conditions where each and every student can develop deep critical thinking, creativity, and empathy so that they can become active and empowered citizens.  

For this to happen, teachers must remain at the heart of education as mentors and trusted professionals. In order to build a ‘trust infrastructure’ Governments must invest in teachers, in competitive salaries and good working conditions, in training and continuous professional development. Our classroom expertise must directly inform the development of AI tools that enhance our work.  

If digital tools are to advance equity rather than deepen inequalities in education, democratic governance, a human rights focus, and teachers’ professional autonomy will be critical. It is imperative that public education remains a public good. 

Education unions and the teaching profession are not waiting for AI to happen to education. We are working to shape its future. Unions are joining forces across borders, advocating at every level for strong, public-minded governance and regulation on the use of AI in education.  

The United Nations will play a decisive role in creating the global consensus we need on AI. As teachers and education unionists we are ready to do our part.