How is the ethics of educational AI and data represented within the Syllabi of pre-service educators and teachers training? A transnational analysis.

This report, produced within the ETH-TECH project, investigates how ethics of artificial intelligence (AI) and data use are represented in the syllabi of pre-service teacher and educator training across four European countries: Germany, Italy, Romania, and Spain. While international bodies such as the EU, OECD, and UNESCO emphasize ethical technology adoption in education, the study finds a gap between rhetorical commitments and curricular realities.

The project adopts a participatory and transnational framework, mapping ethical challenges such as techno-solutionism, bias, dependency, and cultural impoverishment, and contrasting them with methods like critical inquiry, technological co-design, and ethics as care. Future scenarios envisioned include technological sovereignty, diversity, and responsible pedagogical technologies.

Syllabi, treated as public documents reflecting institutional priorities, were systematically analyzed—about 150 were collected. Across contexts, explicit references to ethics were minimal. Germany showed relatively stronger engagement through media education, while Italy, Romania, and Spain primarily emphasized digital competence, technology integration, and inclusivity, with ethics rarely explicit. Where ethical concerns appeared, they were usually framed in instrumental or compliance-oriented terms rather than as critical reflection on power, justice, and datafication.

The report highlights the need to embed ethical, critical, and contextualized approaches into teacher education to move beyond technical skill-building toward responsible and reflexive engagement with digital technologies.