AI DL - Data Literacy in the Age of AI for Education

AI-DL project

A common European pathway for schools, teachers and students

Since March 2025, a European consortium has been working on the "AI-DL – Data Literacy in the Age of AI for Education" project to support secondary schools in addressing one of the major educational challenges of the coming years: helping teachers and students adapt to a world increasingly shaped by data. More specifically, the aim is to understand, question and use data in a context where the use of generative AI is profoundly transforming what it means to “know, use, analyse, interpret and create data”. Developing these competences will enable teachers and students to engage critically with AI-based educational technologies, by reflecting on and evaluating data-based outputs, and to use them creatively, effectively and ethically in education.

Our approach

The "Data Literacy in the Age of AI for Education" project uses a collaborative and experimental approach in secondary education. Through the implementation of Communities of Practice in 40 schools across 7 countries, the project co-constructs with teachers, students and school leaders a set of complementary resources that will be made available at European and international level:

• a data literacy framework for the use of generative AI tools (AI-DL competence framework);
• an online training pathway, developed by the consortium, that will strengthen the Communities of Practice in the schools participating in the experimentation;
• an evaluation of the impact of the training;
• policy recommendations.

Initial results

The "diagnosis" phase carried out in 2025 combined desk research, surveys of teaching practices and existing data literacy policies across seven European Ministries of Education. Based on the results, the first version of the AI-DL competence framework was developed in January 2026. The framework helps identify the knowledge, skills and attitudes that teachers and students need to develop to strengthen their data literacy in the context of generative AI. It connects data literacy with digital citizenship, democratic values, critical thinking, ethical awareness and responsible participation in society. The French version will be available soon.

The training kit, currently under development, will be finalised by the end of 2026. It translates the competence framework and the diagnosis results into concrete professional learning opportunities for teachers. It includes three modules featuring different activities, tasks and practical examples linked to the framework competences. These resources aim to help teachers understand the key issues surrounding data literacy and design learning activities for their students.

Next steps

In close coordination with the Communities of Practice, the final stage of the project will focus on teacher training and classroom implementation, planned for 2027. Teachers will be invited to test, adapt and analyse the activities proposed in the training kit with their students. Their feedback will help identify what works, what needs improvement and what types of support schools need to integrate data literacy into teaching and learning practices across different subjects. A final, improved version of the training kit, based on teacher feedback, will be published in 2028 as an Open Educational Resource (OER).

Project partners

The AI-DL project is built on a diverse partnership spanning 7 European countries: Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Slovenia, bringing together ministries and universities. It is coordinated by France Education international (FEI) and brings together 11 full partners and 2 associated partners. Seven Ministries of Education are involved, including the French Ministry of National Education, represented by the Directorate for Digital Education (DNE).

The Universities of Nantes (France) and Maribor (Slovenia), as well as the Italian research centres Istituto Nazionale di Documentazione, Innovazione e Ricerca Educativa (INDIRE) and Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche (CNR-ITD), participate in the project. H2 Learning (Ireland) is also a project partner.

AI4T : the pioneering project

AI-DL builds on the success of the European project "AI4T – Artificial intelligence for and by teachers", coordinated by France Education international, which brought together five European ministries in a consortium of 17 partners. AI4T was a large-scale project and a first step towards integrating AI into education. It trained more than 1,000 European teachers between 2021 and 2024 and now provides a wide range of educational tools and resources, such as the AI4T MOOC and the AI4T Open Textbook, to raise awareness among education stakeholders about the use of AI in education. In France, more than 50,000 people have completed this online training!

This project is implemented under the Erasmus+ programme (Key Action 3: support to policy development and cooperation).

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.