Why AI is a Game-Changer for Gender Equality in Education — Or is it?

A recent study has revealed differences in the AI ethics of male & female teachers

A recent study has revealed differences in the AI ethics of male & female teachers

Photo by Amy Elting on Unsplash

Do you believe in equality?

That’s more complex a question than it seems. Why?

Well, there are different types of equality, for example, equality of outcome, and equality of opportunity.

Regardless of the type of equality you prefer, perhaps something most of us can agree on is we want everyone to be able to be the best they can be regardless of their gender, race or nationality.

Education is one of the best ways we can provide young people with the support and environment to help them become the best they can be.

AI is a powerful new tool that can help improve educational outcomes for children from any background.

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

From my research as an AI professional, I see that AI is becoming one of the most powerful tools we have for creating better educational outcomes for all children.

However, a recent study has revealed some significant differences in the way the gender of a teacher leads to very different approaches to using AI in teaching.

These gender differences could make significant differences in how children are taught and their learning outcomes.

So can AI still help improve equality of education? or will the gender differences of teachers create more inequality?

Study reveals how gender influences teachers ethical AI choices

Cryptopolitan magazine reported on a recent study by the USC Center for Generative AI ‘AI in K-12 Classrooms: Ethical Considerations and Lessons Learned’.

The report showed significant gender differences in teachers’ ethical perspectives about AI which the article highlighted:

Female teachers tended to favour rule-based, or deontological, approaches, which prioritize adhering to ethical principles regardless of consequences. In contrast, male teachers were more concerned with the consequences of AI, adopting an outcome-based, or consequentialist, perspective.

Other factors which played a role in how AI was used in teaching included how confident the teacher was in using AI, and their levels of anxiety when evaluating AI.

This gender difference in AI ethics has similarities to the philosophical thought experiment known as the ‘trolly problem’ which is:

…A thought experiment in ethics about a fictional scenario in which an onlooker has the choice to save 5 people in danger of being hit by a trolley, by diverting the trolley to kill just 1 person.

So it’s a dilemma where there are no good choices.

How does this relate to the gender-based differences of the teachers?

If you always follow the approach favoured by female teachers of sticking to ethical or rule-based principles regardless of outcomes, this could create situations where bad outcomes happen, because people are blindly sticking to rules.

If you always follow the approach favoured by the male teachers of doing what seems to have the best result, then this might lead people to make unethical choices because they seem to produce good results.

Photo by Remi Turcotte on Unsplash

This is the trolly problem, no perfect choices.

This is the same problem that is facing makers of AI-driven cars as well.

The report also highlighted the huge potential AI has for improving educational outcomes.

Could teacher AI gender differences create more inequality?

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