THE JUDGE MODEL OF AI-MEDIATED TEACHER AGENCY: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Abstract

Despite the fast uptake of generative artificial intelligence (AI) by English language teaching (ELT), much of the existing literature on generative AI has remained technocentric in its approach to the field, emphasizing its usefulness, and neglecting an important theoretical blind spot concerning how AI has reconfigured the agency and professional standing of teachers. To address this theoretical gap in analyzing teacher agency in AI-mediated ecosystems, this article develops the JUDGE model, which was originally conceptualized by the author, as a framework for investigating teacher agency in AI-supported contexts. Drawing on sociocultural theory and ecological approaches, the JUDGE model proposes that there are five important aspects of professional practice: Justification, Uncertainty Management, Decision Ownership, Guidance vs. Governance, and Ethical Accountability. In a separate empirical article, the author will operationalize the JUDGE model with the introduction of the JUDGE Scale (J-Scale). A preliminary validity test conducted with expert respondents attested to its promising content validity, although full psychometric validation of the JUDGE model remains a future stage of the research programme in a separate article. This article offers a conceptual framework for critically examining how agency has shifted in AI-mediated educational contexts.