Selected Scholarship

Research organized around questions, not alphabetized into submission.

This curated collection highlights studies and frameworks that help explain what critical AI literacy requires, what students and educators need, and where higher education still lacks evidence.

Current scope

This first release contains 16 core sources drawn from the project literature corpus. It is intentionally selective rather than exhaustive.

16 sources shown

Study 01

Students’ voices on generative AI: Perceptions, benefits, and challenges in higher education

Chan, C. K. Y., & Hu, W. (2023). International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20, 43.

Student perceptionsStudentsEmpirical

What this adds

Shows students value immediacy, writing, research, and personalized support while worrying about accuracy, transparency, privacy, ethics, career effects, and unclear policies.

Why it matters

Student AI literacy support cannot be designed around academic integrity alone. Students need clear policy, conceptual understanding, ethical guidance, and help preserving higher-order skills.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 02

Exploring generative AI literacy in higher education: Student adoption, interaction, evaluation and ethical perceptions

Chen, K., Tallant, A. C., & Selig, I. (2024). Information and Learning Sciences, 126(1/2), 132–148.

Student practicesStudentsEmpirical

What this adds

Examines adoption and interaction alongside evaluation and ethical perceptions rather than treating use frequency as literacy.

Why it matters

Supports the distinction between being a frequent AI user and being able to evaluate, verify, and use AI responsibly.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 03

A qualitative study of students’ lived experience and perceptions of using ChatGPT: Immediacy, equity and integrity

Holland, A., & Ciachir, C. (2025). Interactive Learning Environments, 33(1), 483–494.

Equity & integrityStudentsQualitative

What this adds

Finds that immediacy, equity, and integrity shape students’ lived experience. Students valued reassurance and creativity but raised concerns about unequal access, group-work misconduct, and unclear institutional rules.

Why it matters

Highlights why student voice and policy transparency belong inside AI literacy, not outside it.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 04

University students’ conceptualisation of AI literacy: Theory and empirical evidence

Cerný, M. (2024). Social Sciences, 13, 129.

Defining AI literacyStudentsEmpirical

What this adds

Shows that students’ mental models of AI literacy include more than tool competence and helps expose incomplete understandings of how AI systems work.

Why it matters

Conceptual misunderstanding can undermine prompting, evaluation, source checking, and judgments about appropriate use.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 05

Context matters: Understanding student usage, skills, and attitudes toward AI to inform classroom policies

Cahill, C., & McCabe, K. (2024). PS: Political Science & Politics, 57(4).

Policy & contextStudentsEmpirical

What this adds

Connects students’ actual use, skills, and attitudes to classroom policy rather than assuming one policy fits every course.

Why it matters

Supports situated AI literacy: expectations should reflect task, discipline, learner practice, and instructional purpose.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 06

The AI generation gap: Are Gen Z students more interested in adopting generative AI than their Gen X and millennial teachers?

Chan, C. K. Y., & Lee, K. K. W. (2023). Smart Learning Environments, 10, 60.

Faculty & studentsStudents + facultyEmpirical

What this adds

Documents differences in interest and adoption across student and teacher groups.

Why it matters

Faculty development cannot assume instructors and students begin from the same experiences, confidence, or expectations.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 07

A systematic literature review of generative artificial intelligence literacy in schools

Park, J. (2025). Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 9, 100487.

GenAI literacyStudentsSystematic review

What this adds

Synthesizes 51 empirical studies into five GenAI literacy competencies and identifies recurring problems with prompting, evaluation, privacy, agency, and ethical use.

Why it matters

Provides one of the clearest evidence syntheses showing that evaluation must be explicitly taught and scaffolded.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 08

Evaluating AI literacy in academic libraries: A survey study with a focus on U.S. employees

Lo, L. S. (2024). College & Research Libraries, 85(5), 635.

LibrariesLibrary employeesEmpirical survey

What this adds

Surveyed 760 academic library employees and found limited readiness, uneven access to professional development, and strong demand for deeper training in AI concepts, applications, privacy, and data security.

Why it matters

Shows that libraries can be AI-literacy partners while also needing equitable professional learning across staff roles.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 09

A comprehensive AI policy education framework for university teaching and learning

Chan, C. K. Y. (2023). International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20, 38.

Institutional policyStudents + faculty + staffMixed methods

What this adds

Frames institutional AI response through pedagogical, governance, and operational dimensions, including assessment, privacy, transparency, accountability, equity, monitoring, and training.

Why it matters

Makes AI literacy an institutional ecology problem rather than an individual student deficit.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 10

Critical literacy of AI: A scoping review of how children and youth reflect on AI’s wider implications

Veldhuis, A., et al. (2025). International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 43, 100708.

Critical AI literacyYouthScoping review

What this adds

Organizes critical AI literacy around disrupting the commonplace, multiple viewpoints, sociopolitical analysis, and taking action. Identifies bias, accountability, surveillance, privacy, transparency, and democratic participation across interventions.

Why it matters

Demonstrates that critical literacy requires more than error detection and should include power, representation, and action.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 11

Critical and creative pedagogies for artificial intelligence and data literacy: An epistemic data justice approach

Atenas, J., Havemann, L., & Nerantzi, C. (2025). Research in Learning Technology, 32, 3296.

Data justiceHigher educationConceptual / synthesis

What this adds

Uses data justice to connect AI and data literacy with visibility, nondiscrimination, participation, privacy, racial and gender justice, decoloniality, sustainability, and community engagement.

Why it matters

Expands AI literacy from individual competence toward democratic participation and epistemic justice.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 12

AI competency framework for students

Miao, F., Shiohira, K., & Lao, N. (2024). UNESCO.

Competency frameworksStudentsInternational framework

What this adds

Combines a human-centred mindset, ethics, AI techniques/applications, and system design across Understand, Apply, and Create.

Why it matters

Provides a widely portable developmental reference that treats human agency and ethics as part of AI competence.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 13

AI competency framework for teachers

Miao, F., & Cukurova, M. (2024). UNESCO.

Faculty developmentTeachers / facultyInternational framework

What this adds

Defines teacher competencies across human-centred mindset, ethics, AI foundations/applications, pedagogy, and professional development.

Why it matters

Provides a developmental structure for faculty support that goes beyond one-off tool workshops.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 14

A framework for the learning and teaching of Critical AI Literacy skills

Hauck, M., et al. (2025). The Open University. Version 0.1.

Critical AI literacyStudents + educatorsInstitutional framework

What this adds

Applies an EDIA lens across AI concepts, teaching, creativity, ethics, society, and careers, with explicit attention to verification, power, labor, environmental impact, accessibility, and epistemic injustice.

Why it matters

Offers one of the strongest bridges between critical theory and concrete higher-education teaching practice.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 15

Critical AI literacy and RACBAC

Zhang, et al. (2025). International Journal of Librarianship, 10(2).

VerificationStudents + researchers + librariansApplied framework

What this adds

Connects data transparency, sovereignty, labor, environmental impact, automation bias, and digital ableism with RACBAC evaluation: Relevance, Accuracy, Coverage, Bias, Authority, and Currency.

Why it matters

Creates a practical bridge between structural critique and day-to-day research verification.

Open source / DOI ↗

Study 16

Advancing freshman skills in information literacy and self-regulation: The role of AI learning companions and Mandala chart in academic libraries

Hu, Y.-H., Hsieh, C.-L., & Salac, E. S. N. (2024). The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 50, 102885.

Libraries & learningFirst-year studentsEmpirical

What this adds

Examines an academic-library learning intervention connecting AI-supported learning with information literacy and self-regulation.

Why it matters

Adds intervention evidence to a literature that otherwise contains many perception studies and comparatively fewer evaluated teaching practices.

Open source / DOI ↗