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Beyond AI Literacy: An Ecological Agency Framework for Human-Centred Generative AI Integration in Higher Education — A Conceptual Study for Educational Innovation and Disciplinary Development

Haoyang He¹, Chon Io Wong²

Guide to Education Innovation / 2026,6(2): 186-197 / 2026-06-08 24 13

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• Information:

  1. Department of Communication, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University, Zhuhai;
  2. Centre of Foreign Languages, School of General Education, Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University, Zhuhai

• Keywords:
  Generative artificial intelligence; Higher education; Learner agency; Ecological agency; AI literacy; Assessment redesign; Institutional accountability; Digital pedagogy
• Abstract: Generative artificial intelligence has moved from a peripheral educational technology to an infrastructural condition of higher education. Yet many institutional responses remain trapped between two insufficient positions: a compliance-centred focus on academic misconduct and an innovation-centred enthusiasm for productivity. Neither position adequately explains how students learn to exercise judgment, responsibility, and authorship when intelligent systems become routine participants in academic practices such as reading, writing, feedback, assessment, and knowledge production. Drawing on a focused conceptual review of scholarship on artificial intelligence in education, AI literacy, platformisation, ecological agency, assessment redesign, and educational purpose, this article develops an ecological agency framework for human-centred generative AI integration in higher education. The revised framework distinguishes three core dimensions of learner educational agency - epistemic discernment, dialogic co-action, and ethical reflexivity - from institutional accountability, which is conceptualized as the ecological context that supports rather than constitutes learner agency. It argues that responsible integration requires curriculum designs that make AI visible as an object of inquiry, assessment practices that value process-rich evidence, teacher professional judgment, and institutional safeguards for equity, privacy, and risk. The article shifts the agenda from AI adoption to agency formation and offers a clearer two-level vocabulary for redesigning higher education curricula under algorithmic mediation.
• DOI: 10.35534/gei.0602016 (registering DOI)
• Cite: He, H. Y., & Wong, C. I. (2026). Beyond AI Literacy: An Ecological Agency Framework for Human-Centred Generative AI Integration in Higher Education — A Conceptual Study for Educational Innovation and Disciplinary Development. Guide to Education Innovation, 6(2), 186-197.