English Language Teachers’ Perceptions of Ethical and AI-Responsive Future-Ready Pedagogy: A Mixed-Methods Study

As generative artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into language education, English language teachers are expected to balance technological innovation with ethical responsibility while preparing learners for digitally mediated and rapidly evolving educational environments. Although research on AI-assisted language teaching has expanded rapidly, relatively little empirical evidence has examined how teachers conceptualize ethical and AI-responsive future-ready pedagogy. This sequential explanatory mixed-methods study investigated these issues through a survey of 342 English language teachers, followed by semi-structured interviews with 20 purposively selected teachers to explain, elaborate, and contextualize the quantitative findings. Quantitative analyses revealed that AI literacy, ethical awareness, future-ready pedagogical beliefs, and perceived institutional support significantly predicted teachers’ implementation readiness, with AI literacy emerging as the strongest predictor, whereas institutional support received the lowest ratings. The qualitative findings generated six interrelated themes, highlighting future-ready pedagogy as preparation for uncertainty, AI as a helpful but imperfect instructional assistant, ethical concerns as everyday teaching dilemmas, institutional support as a prerequisite for implementation, the preservation of human agency, and ethical prompt literacy as an emerging educational competency. Overall, the findings demonstrate that responsible AI integration depends not only on teachers’ technological competence but also on ethical judgment, learner-centered pedagogical beliefs, and supportive institutional environments. The study provides empirical evidence that teachers' readiness for responsible AI integration depends on the interaction of technological competence, ethical judgment, learner-centered pedagogical beliefs, and supportive institutional environments.