AI technologies have the potential to transform K-12 student leadership by democratizing access to information, enhancing communication, and empowering students to engage more effectively in school governance and democratic participation.

Objective: The main purpose of this study was to examine AI's potential role in enhancing student agency and facilitating democratic participation within K-12 school settings by exploring the experiences and perspectives of former student leaders from diverse cultural contexts. The researchers aimed to understand how AI could support student leadership, moving beyond traditional adult-centered educational approaches to embrace more inclusive, student-driven governance structures.

Methods: The study employed a qualitative case study design featuring semi-structured interviews with three former K-12 student leaders who are currently undergraduate students in the U.S. The participants represented diverse educational contexts from the United States, Japan, and Turkey. Selection criteria included: minimum two years of leadership experience in student organizations, high technological awareness with active AI tool usage, and ongoing commitment to student activism addressing issues like climate change and human rights. Data collection involved individual interviews conducted via Zoom and in-person, with audio recordings transcribed using pseudonyms (Adam, Hana, and Leon). The analysis employed deductive coding organized around theoretical frameworks, local contexts, and the research question, with a collaborative approach among three researchers ensuring reliability through peer debriefing and member checking.

Key Findings: The study identified five major themes regarding AI's potential in student leadership:

1. Addressing barriers to information access: AI can help students overcome isolation and expand their vision beyond their immediate school environments, particularly benefiting those in conservative or less-connected settings.
2. Ethical considerations: Participants emphasized the need for education about responsible AI use rather than prohibition, recognizing that students are already exposed to AI technologies and need guidance for ethical implementation.
3. Cultural sensitivity: AI can help bridge cultural and informational gaps, enabling students from diverse backgrounds to access broader perspectives and overcome biases from their local contexts.
4. Practical applications: AI tools can facilitate real-time translation in multicultural meetings, assist with research and brainstorming, help with documentation and meeting transcription, and support project management.
5. Feedback and collaboration enhancement: AI can streamline communication between large numbers of students, help analyze feedback efficiently, and preserve student narratives for future leaders while maintaining the importance of human interaction.

Implications: This research contributes significantly to the field of AI in education by proposing an alternative to automation-focused approaches. The findings suggest that AI can serve as a tool for educational empowerment rather than replacement, supporting both AI literacy and democratic participation simultaneously. The study demonstrates how AI can help level the playing field between students and adults in educational micropolitics by providing students with better access to information, resources, and organizational tools. This approach aligns with distributed leadership theories and supports the development of more autonomous student organizations. The research also highlights the potential for AI to preserve and share student leadership experiences across institutions and cultures, creating valuable resources for future student leaders.

Limitations: The study acknowledges several significant limitations. The sample size was extremely small with only three participants, who were privileged individuals studying at world-leading universities, potentially limiting the generalizability of findings. These participants may not represent the broader diversity of student leadership experiences across different socio-economic backgrounds and educational institutions. The study also lacked perspectives from adult stakeholders such as teachers and administrators, which could provide valuable insights for practical implementation. Additionally, the cross-cultural representation, while valuable, was limited to specific contexts that may not encompass the full range of cultural experiences in student leadership.

Future Directions: The researchers recommend several areas for future investigation:

• Including larger and more diverse groups of student leaders from various socio-economic backgrounds and educational institutions
• Incorporating adult perspectives from school leaders, teachers, and administrators
• Adopting longitudinal approaches to capture the evolving nature of student activism and AI's impact over time
• Testing AI's potential for student leadership in practice through implementation studies
• Exploring how AI-enhanced access to past leadership narratives impacts decision-making and development of future student leaders
• Investigating AI-driven storytelling platforms for preserving and disseminating student narratives
• Developing and testing ethical frameworks for AI implementation in student leadership contexts

Title and Authors: "Promises of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Reframing Student Agency and Democratic Participation in K–12 Schools: Perspectives From Student Leaders" by Köksal Banoğlu, Justin Patrick, and Özge Hacıfazlıoğlu.

Published on: 2025

Published by: Leading & Managing, Vol. 31, No. 1, 2025, pp. 90–111