Last week, I had the privilege of joining the “AI and Education: Penser l’outil et ses usages” seminar in Tunis, held on February 24-26. This important event was organized by Tunisia’s Ministry of Education and the Centre International De Formation Des Formateurs et d’Innovation Pédagogique as part of the PARLE program, which supports education reform in Tunisia by strengthening students’ linguistic skills. The program, backed by the AFD and the EU, aims to improve inclusion and learning outcomes in the Tunisian education system.
Key Seminar Outcomes
The three-day seminar provided a rich platform for exchange and reflection through several key activities:
- Understanding AI Foundations: Interactive workshops with educational inspectors from Tunisia’s Ministry of Education explored AI’s fundamental principles and applications in educational contexts.
- Ethical and Regulatory Frameworks: Detailed discussions examined the ethical, regulatory, and pedagogical dimensions of implementing AI in classrooms.
- Sharing Practical Experiences: Participants exchanged concrete experiences and best practices for integrating AI tools, including insights from France’s CanoTech online teacher training platform.
- Examining AI’s Impact on Teaching: Dynamic debates between French and Tunisian educators examined how AI transforms teaching roles and student relationships with knowledge.
AI is Not Neutral: A New Form of Digital Colonialism
In my contribution to the panel discussion on AI perspectives in Tunisia’s educational system, I emphasized a critical point: AI is not a neutral technology. For us in the Global South community, this technology often represents a new form of digital colonialism.
This digital colonialism operates through several mechanisms:
- Massive Data Extraction: Similar to how colonial powers exploited natural resources, tech giants extract our personal data to transform into wealth, often with minimal return to our communities.
- Imposition of Western Models: Western-developed AI imposes cultural, economic, and behavioral norms globally, erasing local particularities and diverse ways of thinking that are essential to our educational traditions.
- Algorithmic Power Consolidation: Decision-making shifts from humans to opaque algorithmic systems beyond democratic control, potentially undermining local educational authority and autonomy.
A Call for Vigilance in Education
Artificial intelligence embodies the values, biases, and priorities of its creators, predominantly from Western tech powers. As we integrate AI into our educational systems, we must remain vigilant to prevent digital colonialism. These technologies can reinforce existing power structures, impose external cultural standards, and extract our data while offering little in return.
Our students deserve AI tools that respect our cultural context, educational priorities, and sovereignty. We must critically examine every AI system entering our classrooms, asking who designed it, whose interests it serves, and whether it truly addresses our community’s unique educational needs.
Resistance is Necessary, Not Inevitable
This AI colonization is not inevitable but requires collective awareness and political/social resistance. Moving forward, we need:
- Reclaiming Human Agency: Ensuring AI remains a tool serving humanity rather than an instrument of control or standardization of educational approaches.
- Limiting Algorithmic Expansion: Particularly in sensitive domains like education, where human relationships and cultural context are fundamental to the learning process.
- Developing Strong Technological Ethics: Prioritizing human and democratic concerns over the economic interests of large corporations when adopting educational technologies.
The seminar highlighted that this algorithmic domination by major tech companies is imposing automated systems that redefine how we teach, learn, and think. This digital colonization goes beyond mere technological dependence—it fundamentally challenges human and democratic sovereignty in education.
As Tunisia and other Global South nations advance in educational technology, we must develop critical awareness and strong regulations to prevent AI from becoming a totalitarian instrument disguised as educational progress. The future of education should be one where technology amplifies our cultural and pedagogical values, not one where it replaces them with external standards and priorities.
