There are two types of academic discourse: complaining about workload and engaging “I am honoured to be part…”, “I am delighted to announce…” performatives. Somewhere in between, there are those days that pleasantly punctuate academic life, and serve to remind me why I chose to do this work in the first place. The joint AI Lang and ReaLiTea workshop that my colleagues and I ran in Larissa on 6 December was one of those days. This event brought together around forty pre-service and in-service teachers of second, foreign and additional languages, who came prepared to think, question, and re-imagine language education. Working with such people is a privilege.
I will not lie by saying that organising such an event was a pleasure. Preparations for these things are stressful and tiring, and they try one’s relationship with colleagues.1 But in the end, the workshop proved to be a memorable day, when we came together to explore research literacy, AI, and the shifting landscapes of professional autonomy. In the paragraphs that follow, I’d like to say a few words about these themes, how we approached them and why they matter, perhaps now more than ever. If you’re curious to see how these strands came together, and why they feel so timely, let me walk you through them.
Empowering Language Teachers
As the name of the workshop (Empowering Language Teachers through AI and Research Literacies) hints, this event consisted of two intertwined strands: one focusing on research literacy, informed by our ongoing work on the ReaLiTea project; and one on AI literacy, which drew on our Artificial Intelligence in Language Education project.
ReaLiTea and developing Research Literacy
In the ReaLiTea project, we view research literacy as a multifaceted competence that enables teachers to meaningfully integrate empirical knowledge into their practice.2
What is Teacher Research Literacy?
We articulate this understanding in a framework that defines five overlapping facets of research literacy, each capturing a distinct but interrelated dimension of teacher professional growth:
- Foundational knowledge, which includes language proficiency, background (schematic) knowledge, sociocultural knowledge, knowledge practices, and knowledge autonomy;
- The ability to draw on published work3 by locating appropriate sources, extracting and critically evaluating information, and synthesizing it in meaningful ways;
- The ability to theorise for practice, by which we mean being able to develop context-sensitive and reflexively aware thinking about our teaching;
- The ability to engage in knowledge production through effective research design, and the application of appropriate empirical methods for the generation and analysis of information, while maintaining ethical standards; and finally,
- The ability to share knowledge effectively and appropriately with a variety of audiences, including peers, junior colleagues and the general public.
Research literacy as empowerment
The overarching aim of ReaLiTea is to challenge the misconception that research is the preserve of specialists and to reframe it as a shared professional resource. To that end, we are working on a suite of deliverables: in addition to the framework mentioned above, we are also building a virtual community of practice and a growing set of learning units for directed study and autonomous professional development, some of which we presented in Larissa.
Taken together, these facets point to a broader understanding of empowerment. Research literacy is not simply about acquiring technical skills or complying with external expectations. It is about enabling teachers to exercise informed professional judgment: to question dominant narratives, to justify pedagogical decisions with evidence, and to contribute knowledge rather than merely consume it. In this sense, developing research literacy is a way of reclaiming agency in a profession where externally imposed standards and ready-made solutions appear alarmingly common.
AI Lang and promoting AI Literacy
Alongside research literacy, language teachers increasingly need a principled understanding of AI literacy. By this, we refer to the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to use AI safely, ethically, purposefully and reflectively in educational practice.
Our AI Literacy work is structured around four interdependent principles:
- Safe and lawful use: understanding privacy, data protection, and institutional constraints.
- Ethical, sustainable and socially just use: recognising bias, equity implications, labour concerns, and environmental impact.
- Purposeful and effective use: selecting AI tools and practices that serve clear pedagogical aims.
- Reflective and agentive use: maintaining teacher judgment, questioning defaults, and resisting technological determinism.
The AI Lang project is developing two key deliverables in this domain: a Moodle-based professional development course for guided or autonomous exploration, and a set of AI Guidelines that articulate principles, examples, and reflective prompts.
Framed in this way, AI literacy is fundamentally about empowerment rather than adoption. It positions teachers not as end-users of prefabricated technologies, but as deliberate, critical decision-makers who retain authority over how (and, indeed, whether) AI enters their pedagogical practice.
Why these literacies matter now
Taken together, research literacy and AI literacy form a coherent agenda: they are tools for repositioning the role of language teachers in a profession where external normative pressures threaten our professional autonomy. The continuous encroachment of oppressive and dystopian ideologies into education (I am thinking of accountability regimes, technocratic solutions, the erosion of teacher autonomy and more) represents a clear and imminent danger that professional judgment becomes subordinate to metrics, mandates, or automated outputs.
Literacy is political.
Against this backdrop, literacy is political. Research literacy allows teachers to reclaim the right to interpret and generate knowledge about their work. AI literacy positions them as reflective and critical teachers who use technologies, rather than as ‘humans-in-the-loop’ of an AI-driven language instruction. Together, they form what Henry Giroux once described as an orientation of “educated hope”: a refusal to cede professional agency, and a commitment to collective, informed action in defence of professional autonomy, ethical practice, and pedagogical purpose. These literacies are not tools for becoming more effective as language teachers. They are the strongpoints of resistance against the idea that educational futures have already been decided by markets, metrics, or machines.
The ReaLiTea and AI Lang workshop
The actual workshop took place in the 5th Junior High School of Larissa, a venue I had chosen with some care, not only because it is, arguably, one of the most beautiful schools in the town, but because it was centrally located and easy to access (or so I thought). But then again, few plans really survive contact with the real world. On the day of the event, most roads leading into Larissa were blocked by farmers’ protests, and a storm warning urged people to avoid unnecessary travel.4 Against this backdrop, the arrival of forty-two participants felt nothing short of remarkable, and I was more than a little delighted5 to note the engaging mix of practicing teachers of English, French and German and several pre-service teachers.
Language teachers engaging with and in research
In the opening segment, I introduced the notion of research literacy and situated it within teachers’ lived realities. We discussed how research questions emerge from classroom practice, how teachers can scale inquiry to match their capacities and needs, and why developing a research stance is essential for agency. This session underscored that teachers do not simply apply research; they participate in shaping it.
Accessing published professional knowledge
For the remainder of the day, participants split up into groups which focused on different aspects of engaging with research. In two of the sessions, participants explored ways of locating reliable and pedagogically relevant literature. Evgenia Tassou guided teachers through sample texts, search strategies, and heuristics for assessing credibility. For many, this segment addressed a longstanding frustration: not the lack of interest in research, but the difficulty of navigating an overwhelming and uneven landscape of information.
Fostering critical reading skills
Building on this, Sofia Tsioli led the sessions on analysing and evaluating research claims. Using short texts, teachers practised distinguishing between findings, interpretations, and assumptions. Together, they challenged the boundaries of what research publications ‘must’ look like, and they explored what justice means in language education research. Some might question the prominence of critical theory in such work but we strongly believe that critical reading is not an academic luxury; it is a safeguard against unexamined mandates, decontextualised “best practices” and manufactured professional ignorance.
Thinking about the role of AI in language education
Later in the morning, we shifted focus to AI in language education. My contribution centred not on demonstrating tools, but on outlining the principles that should underpin AI use: legality, ethics, purpose, and reflexivity. The discussion that followed was lively and deeply honest. Teachers shared both their excitement and their anxieties, and it became clear that we shared a perspective of AI literacy not as a technical add-on but as part of a broader pedagogical and ethical orientation.
Doctoral Study and Getting Published
Before closing, I took the opportunity to introduce our6 book, Doctoral Study and Getting Published, and to discuss pathways for deeper scholarly engagement. Emerald Publishing kindly provided a number of free copies, which I was happy to distribute to participants, a gesture that many appreciated. Although this was not a core aim of the workshop, it offered an additional route for teachers curious about expanding their academic trajectories.
Building communities of language teachers
As is often the case, some of the most meaningful exchanges happened between activities: during the coffee break, in small clusters of conversation, in the quiet recognition that others share similar questions, frustrations, and hopes. Projects like ReaLiTea have what I have elsewhere called a “hidden deliverable”: the emergence of community. What took shape in Larissa was not merely a group of workshop participants, but the beginnings of a network bound by curiosity, solidarity, and a commitment to evidence-informed practice.
Looking ahead
As both research projects enter their third year, our focus will shift towards piloting, evaluating, and refining the resources we have been developing. Additional workshops will follow, the collection of materials will grow, the Moodle course will continue to evolve, and the guidelines for AI literacy will be expanded with examples drawn from real classrooms.
If you wish to stay involved, whether by piloting materials, offering feedback, or participating in future events, you are warmly invited to do so. These projects thrive on dialogue, and the Larissa workshop demonstrated just how valuable that dialogue can be.
Jan Blommaert’s “Looking back: What was important?”
Shortly before his death, Jan Blommaert wrote what I consider one of the most profound accounts of what it means to be an academic — a searching reflection on ethics, knowledge, and what makes a scholarly life worth living. I am republishing it here, with full attribution, from his now-defunct blog Ctrl-Alt-Dem.
Building an Ethical Framework for AI in Language Education: The AI Lang Guidelines
What does it mean to use AI well in a language classroom, not just effectively, but ethically? This post introduces the AI Lang framework: four principles, eight guidelines, and thirty-five competence descriptors for the ethical use of AI in language education.
March 2026: Notes on academic collaboration, strain, and scholarly direction
March 2026 was a month dominated by the kick-off meeting of the LocalLing project, perhaps the most important thing I’ve done in my academic life. This is how it unfolded.
Questions and Answers
What was the main aim of the December 6th workshop?
The workshop aimed to empower language teachers by strengthening their research literacy and AI literacy, understood as tools for professional agency rather than technical skills or compliance with external demands.
Why combine research literacy and AI literacy?
Together, these literacies form a coherent response to growing pressures on teacher autonomy. Research literacy supports informed judgment and knowledge production, while AI literacy helps teachers engage critically with emerging technologies, rather become passive components in an AI-driven vision of language education.
How can interested teachers get involved?
Teachers can engage by piloting materials, offering feedback, joining the Moodle course, participating in future workshops, or becoming part of the emerging communities of practice around ReaLiTea and AI Lang.
Summary
- The Empowering Language Teachers through AI and Research Literacies workshop (Larissa, 6 December) brought together research literacy and AI literacy as two interconnected strands of professional empowerment.
- Drawing on the ReaLiTea project, the workshop framed research literacy as a multifaceted competence that enables teachers to engage with, produce, and share knowledge, reclaiming research as a shared professional resource rather than a specialist preserve.
- In parallel, work from the AI Lang project positioned AI literacy not as tool adoption, but as a principled, ethical, and agentive stance towards educational technologies.
- Through hands-on sessions on accessing research, critical reading, inquiry, and AI use, teachers exercised judgment, questioned dominant narratives, and articulated their own professional positions.
- Beyond the formal programme, the workshop’s most important outcome may have been the emergence of a community of language teachers committed to evidence-informed practice, autonomy, and collective professional agency.
Footnotes
- That said, I cannot have wished for a more efficient group of colleagues to prepare this event. Special thanks go to Eleni Motsiou for making sure everything ran smoothly, and Dimitra Giannouka and Eleni Theodoropoulou for amazing administrative support. ↩︎
- You can read more about this in this article: Kostoulas, A., Motsiou, E., & Vleioras, G. (2025). Developing a teacher research literacy framework for language teacher education. European Journal of Teacher Education, 1-21. ↩︎
- We are deliberately avoiding terms such as ‘literature’ or ‘research publications’ because the kinds of knowledge teachers can use might appear in lots of different formats – from monographs and journal articles to blog posts, comics, infographics and more. ↩︎
- Hardly surpising: airport closure, railroad strikes and travel advisories are regular occurrences in ReaLiTea events. ↩︎
- In a genuine way, not LinkedIn ‘delighted’. ↩︎
- The full reference, for those who find such things useful is: Fay, R. & Kostoulas, A. (2025). Doctoral Study and Getting Published: Narratives of Early Career Researchers. Emerald. ↩︎
About me
Achilleas Kostoulas is an applied linguist and language teacher educator at the Department of Primary Education, University of Thessaly, Greece. He holds a PhD and an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the University of Manchester, UK and a BA in English Studies from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
His research explores a wide range of issues connected with language (teacher) education, including language contact and plurilingualism, linguistic identities and ideologies, language policy and didactics, often using a Complex Dynamic Systems Theory to tease out connections between them. Some of his publications in the field include the research monograph The Intentional Dynamics of TESOL (2021, De Gruyter; with Juup Stelma) and the edited volume Doctoral Study and Getting Published (2025, Emerald; with Richard Fay), as well as numerous other publications.
Achilleas currently contributes to several projects that bring together his long-standing interests in language education, teacher development, and the social dimensions of language learning. As the coordinator of the expert team of AI Lang (Artificial Intelligence in Language Education), an initiative of the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe, he works on developing principles and resources to help educators make informed, pedagogically grounded use of AI in their teaching. He also leads the University of Thessaly team of ReaLiTea (Research Literacy of Teachers), a project that supports language teachers in developing the capacity to engage with, and contribute to, educational research. Alongside these, he contributes to LocalLing, a Horizon-funded initiative to preserve and strengthen heritage and minority languages globally.
In addition to the above, Achilleas is the (co)editor-in-chief of the newly established European Journal of Education and Language Review, and welcomes contributions that explore the dynamic intersections between language, education, and society.
About this post
I wrote this post on 14th December 2025, shortly after the workshop described. The content of the post does not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Thessaly, the ReaLiTea team, the AI Lang team, and our funding organisations. All the photos are the work of Dimitra Giannouka, who assisted with the photographic coverage of the event.
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