Beyond adoption: Teachers’ pedagogical reasoning about generative artificial intelligence in schooling

Much of the research on teachers and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has focused on whether teachers adopt or intend to adopt it. This line of work often frames adoption as desirable and treats teaching as uniform practice, rather than as situated decisions shaped by teachers’ pedagogical reasoning. In this study, we moved beyond adoption to examine how teachers take GenAI into account and how pedagogical reasoning informs practice across contexts. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 24 middle-school teachers and analyzed them thematically. We identified four pedagogical reasoning profiles (higher-order thinking, authority and control, content delivery, and flexibility) that reflect how teachers consider GenAI in planning and classroom instruction. Across profiles, teachers described blocking GenAI in specific situations, for example, to preserve students’ cognitive effort or to address other pedagogical concerns, even when they supported broader use. We discuss implications for research and practice.