AI literacy across educational contexts: A narrative review of definitions, dimensions, debates, and future directions
TL;DR
The review finds that AI literacy should not be reduced to technical competence alone and is best understood as a context-sensitive form of literacy that combines foundational knowledge, practical engagement, critical evaluation, ethical awareness, and pedagogical judgment.
Abstract
Artificial intelligence has moved from a specialist topic to a pervasive educational concern, reshaping teaching, learning, assessment, and professional preparation across educational sectors. AI literacy is increasingly used to describe the knowledge, judgment, and participation needed for meaningful engagement with AI-mediated environments. However, the literature remains conceptually fragmented: definitions vary, core dimensions are framed differently, and the relationship between AI literacy and adjacent constructs remains unsettled. This narrative review synthesizes recent scholarship on AI literacy across school education, higher education, and teacher education with five aims: to examine how AI literacy has been defined, identify the dimensions most often emphasized, analyze how educational contexts shape its framing, clarify major conceptual tensions, and discuss implications for research and practice. Unlike previous reviews that address a single educational sector or specific aspect of AI literacy, this study provides a cross-context synthesis that consolidates the fragmented literature into five definition clusters, five recurring dimensions, and six conceptual tensions. Using a thematic and interpretive review of recent English-language scholarship, the article organizes the literature across key educational contexts and traces the shift from narrowly technical understandings toward broader multidimensional models. The review finds that AI literacy should not be reduced to technical competence alone. Rather, it is best understood as a context-sensitive form of literacy that combines foundational knowledge, practical engagement, critical evaluation, ethical awareness, and pedagogical judgment. The analysis also highlights persistent debates concerning the boundaries of AI literacy, its overlap with neighboring literacies, and the tension between human agency and AI-assisted efficiency in the era of generative AI. The review concludes that future work should move toward more coherent conceptual frameworks while preserving sensitivity to educational level, disciplinary context, and the evolving role of generative AI in education.