AERA 2026 Annual Meeting Success
This collaborative research was successfully accepted and presented at the prestigious AERA 2026 Annual Meeting. It challenges uncritical techno-solutionism and offers a radical new framework for AI integration, representing the unified vision of the AFIRMASI team.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often championed as the ultimate democratizer of education. In Indonesia’s 3T regions—frontier, outermost, and underdeveloped areas—the promise of AI-powered tutors bridging resource gaps is intoxicating. But beneath the veneer of progress lies a profound risk: that these systems, trained on Global North data and Western epistemologies, will act as vehicles for a new form of "epistemological colonization."
In this paper, I argue that the current techno-solutionist discourse positions AI as a master rather than a tool. To counter this, I introduce the Culturally Sustaining AI Framework. It is a paradigm shift that centers on a simple yet radical metaphor: AI must behave as a respectful guest, while local wisdom—the kearifan lokal of the community—remains the teacher.
The Landscape of Becoming: Why Identity Matters in AI
Forming a "science identity" is not a neutral process; it is a deeply political "landscape of becoming" (Avraamidou, 2020). For students in remote regions, forming this identity requires recognition. When a standardized AI system—one that doesn't understand the seasonal rhythms of a Maluku fishing village or the ancestral agricultural logic of a Dayak community—enters a classroom, it often fails to recognize the student’s lived reality. It becomes an unwelcome guest that ignores the wisdom of the home.
We ground our framework in Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP), which moves beyond mere "relevance" to actively foster the cultural pluralism of communities (Paris & Alim, 2017). A culturally sustaining AI must do more than translate languages; it must sustain the very ways of knowing and being of the host communities it serves.
Deconstructing the Techno-Solutionist Narrative
Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I examined the dominant narratives in Indonesian EdTech and government policy. I found three troubling trends:
- Aexleration at any Cost: Terms like "akselerasi" and "transformasi" frame AI as an unavoidable, independent catalyst for good, silencing critical debate.
- Asymmetrical Power: A government-corporate alliance validates these tools from the top down, leaving little room for community agency.
- The "Civilizing Mission" 2.0: Framing AI as a "solution" for "underdeveloped" regions implicitly constructs local knowledge as deficient.
In this paradigm, the human teacher and the community’s heritage are sidelined. The AI is the active "tutor," while the student is reduced to a passive data source.
The Culturally Sustaining AI Framework: Three Core Principles
To disrupt this neocolonial cycle, I propose three principles for a justice-oriented future:
1. AI as Guest: Host-Led Inquiry
The host community, not the technological guest, must set the research agenda. Instead of AI telling students what to learn, students use AI as a tool for their own community-based inquiry. Imagine students in Kalimantan using local sensor data and AI models to analyze river health, linking scientific data directly to ancestral traditions of environmental stewardship.
2. Wisdom as Teacher: Centering Kearifan Lokal
I call for a radical model of co-design where community elders and knowledge holders are the leading epistemological partners. An AI tool for Balinese students, for instance, should be co-developed with Subak masters to model the holistic principles of Tri Hita Karana.
3. Rebuilding Power: Recognizing Identity
When technology honors local wisdom, students experience "epistemic recognition." Their heritage is validated as a legitimate source of scientific understanding, fostering a robust science identity built on competence, belonging, and pride.
The Path Forward: From Extraction to Empowerment
The scholarly significance of the Culturally Sustaining AI Framework lies in its ability to offer a robust alternative to "one-size-fits-all" solutions. It moves the goalpost from individualistic efficiency to collective community empowerment.
Ultimately, I aim to contribute to a more critical and imaginative global conversation about technology in education. By centering the wisdom of local communities as the teacher, it becomes possible to build a future where our most advanced tools are used not to erase human diversity, but to sustain and amplify it.