Primary school teachers’ knowledge and preparedness for the integration of artificial intelligence in Muheza District Council in Tanzania

Abstract

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education systems is becoming a reality, and teachers’conceptual awareness, pedagogical skills, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills, and enabling conditions are all important in achieving this use in a responsible manner. This is an exploratory study using a convergent mixed-methods research methodology that explored the self-reported familiarity, knowledge and preparedness of primary school teachers in Muheza District Council, Tanga Region, Tanzania with the use of artificial intelligence. The primary schools selected were ten primary schools (7 public and 3 private) and teachers were recruited by convenience sampling. In the quantitative strand, 91 questionnaires were returned, while in the qualitative strand, 20 semi-structured interviews were obtained. The data collected from the questionnaires were analyzed descriptively by calculating the frequencies and percentages. Interview results were analysed into themes and combined with the quantitative results by domain. Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) were employed interpretively as lenses and not as a model. The percentages of agreement for the five self-reported familiarity and knowledge items ranged from 58.2% to 82.4%. Overall, 47.3% of teachers said that they use AI tools in their teaching, 53.8% said they had digital skills to use AI, and 40.7% said they had reliable Internet access. The interviews corroborated these findings, indicating a lack of uniformity in conceptual understanding, pedagogical value and training requirement, as well as a need for devices, connectivity, electricity, and institutional support. This study concludes that the level of readiness between and within domains, however, was not uniform, and the teachers were not clearly categorized as ‘knowledgeable’ or ‘unprepared’. The findings are not generalizable to primary school teachers in Tanzania because the sample was non-probability, data were self-reported and the quantitative data were available only with aggregated outputs. The study provides context-specific evidence to support the application of Tanzania’s 2026 national guidelines on digital education and AI in education, as well as education professional development for teachers in low-resource primary schools. This study recommends that the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and its implementing agencies should ensure that the 2026 National Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence in Education and the National Digital Education Guidelines for Schools and Teacher Colleges are communicated, resourced, implemented, and monitored, with a focus on rural primary schools.