💡Newly published article by Fathi in System.This longitudinal narrative inquiry explores the evolving professional identities of eight EFL teachers in Iran over one academic year as they integrated AI into their pedagogy. Drawing on a posthumanist perspective, this study challenges linear models of technology adoption, framing identity not as a fixed human attribute but as a dynamic, co-constructed assemblage emerging from human-AI interaction.The findings reveal a complex, three-stage process of ontological reconfiguration. Initially, teachers experienced epistemic anxiety, performing intensive boundary work to reassert their human authority.This was followed by a pivotal shift as they cultivated a new identity as “prompt-pedagogues,” focusing their expertise on designing the conditions for productive human-AI dialogue.The final phase was characterized by the negotiation of a hybrid, symbiotic identity, which required new forms of affective labor to manage the socio-emotional dynamics of the human-student-AI triad. A quantitative analysis confirmed a significant shift from positioning AI as a Subordinate to a Partner.
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