Coding For Equity: Click, Code, Change - How AI Empowers Activist Education

Abstract

This study examines how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be thoughtfully and critically woven into senior secondary classrooms, particularly in accounting, to advance educational equity, affirm student identities, and deepen student-led inquiry. Using an action-based research (ABR) approach, the work foregrounds students’ lived experiences as they engage with AI tools to co-design learning projects that reflect their values and communities. Drawing on classroom case studies, this study explores how students react when AI-generated outputs misrepresent or erase aspects of who they are, and how they envision more inclusive and socially responsive technological design. The findings suggest that, when approached critically, AI can catalyze creative expression, ethical questioning, and digital empowerment. At the same time, the research surfaces persistent challenges related to cultural bias, and broader systemic inequities embedded within AI systems. The study ultimately advances a justice-focused vision of AI in education, one that prepares students not only to operate emerging technologies, but also to interrogate and lead in shaping how these technologies are designed and used in society.