Embedding AI Literacy in Education: A Multidimensional Approach to Fostering Cognitive Liberation

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has changed the way schools work very, but it has also raised concerns about how students grow independently and critically. If students rely too much on AI tools, they may lose their autonomy to regulate, be creative, and be conscious with their own way of thinking. This paper contends that proficient AI literary education serves a mechanism of cognitive liberation, providing learners with intellectual and ethical independence – such as critical thinking, self-efficacy, autonomy, and ethical awareness – to responsibly explore AI-influenced worlds as ideal citizens. Using Paulo Freire’s theory of critical pedagogy, the study combines recent empirical research such as AI literacy frameworks suggested through four interconnected aspects: cognitive, metacognitive, affective, and social. Altogether, these areas help students reflect their behaviors toward using AI, control their emotions, and make more ideal moral decisions. Also, this paper argues that AI literacy can be added to the current school curricula through interdisciplinary learning, project-based models, and test assessment tools such as the AI Literacy Questionnaire (AILQ). The paper demonstrates that well-structured AI literacy education can not only make students more competent in the use of AI technologies, but also more aware. This changes students from passive users of technology into active thinkers who can make moral choices in a technology-driven world.