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This conceptual article argues that artificial intelligence (AI) does not alter the fundamental purposes of K–12 education but instead heightens the importance of cultivating distinctly human forms of knowledge and agency. Drawing on classical and contemporary educational thought, we identify four enduring capacities central to schooling: disciplinary understanding, applied competence, sound judgment, and reflective wisdom. We examine how these capacities align with the enduring aims of education and consider the extent to which schools currently develop them in practice. We then analyze how AI is reshaping teaching and learning by expanding access to information, automating routine cognitive tasks, and raising new questions about judgment, authorship, equity, and human development. In response, we propose a framework of human intellectual agency in an AI-mediated world, arguing that students, teachers, and schools must learn to empower, govern, and disrupt AI in ways that serve educational purposes. We conclude that AI makes the cultivation of human knowledge, judgment, and purpose more—not less—essential in contemporary schooling.
Keywords: Human agency, Artificial intelligence, K–12 education, Knowledge, Skills, Judgment, Wisdom, AI literacy
How to Cite: Vontz, T. , Larson, L. , Windsor, M. , Bradshaw, D. & Simmons, D. (2026) “Education for Human Agency in the Age of AI”, Educational Considerations. 51(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.4148/edconsiderations.20922
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