Where do you start when your Board asks for an AI policy?
- Do you begin by banning certain tools?
- By writing rules about student use?
- By deciding which AI platform teachers should or shouldn’t use?
- Or do you start somewhere entirely different?
These are conversations I’m having more regularly now with school leaders across Aotearoa. There is a growing recognition that artificial intelligence will change almost every aspect of schooling – from teaching and learning to assessment, administration and community engagement. Yet many Boards of Trustees and leadership teams are understandably asking, “Where do we even begin?”
The challenge is that AI is moving so quickly that any policy focused solely on today’s technologies risks becoming obsolete almost as soon as it is written. That led me to a different question.
Perhaps the issue isn’t really “What should our AI policy say?”
Perhaps it is “How do we lead our school through a period of profound change?”
That shift in thinking became the foundation for the paper I’ve recently completed titled Leading like a wayfinder towards an AI-enabled future – available on the FutureMakers website in the Thought Pieces tab.
Rather than treating AI as simply another piece of technology to manage, the paper frames it as a leadership and governance challenge. AI is the catalyst – but it isn’t the story. The real work of governance is helping a school navigate uncertainty while remaining anchored in its purpose, values and aspirations for learners.
To explore this, I draw on three ideas that have shaped my own thinking.
- The first is the metaphor of the waka. Good governance isn’t about trying to control every wave or predict every change in the weather. It’s about knowing where you’re heading, reading the conditions, and navigating together.
- The second is the Prosper – Prepare – Protect framework (taken from a recent Brookings Institute report). Rather than seeing opportunity, capability building and risk management as competing priorities, this framework encourages Boards to hold all three together in balance.
- The third is a Three Horizons model, helping schools distinguish between what requires immediate action, what capabilities need to be developed over time, and what kind of future they ultimately want to create for their learners.
Running through the paper is another conviction that I believe is essential. AI must become a force for greater equity, not greater inequality. Every governance decision should ask how emerging technologies can strengthen opportunities and outcomes for all learners, particularly Māori and Pasifika, rather than unintentionally widening existing disparities.
This isn’t a technical guide to AI tools, and it deliberately avoids chasing the latest product announcements or platform updates. Instead, it’s a resource for Boards, principals and senior leadership teams that aims to support thoughtful conversations, informed decision-making and governance that will remain relevant long after today’s AI models have been replaced by tomorrow’s.
If your Board or leadership team has been wondering where to begin, my hope is that this paper provides a practical and enduring place to start. Because the future won’t be shaped by the schools with the best AI policy. It will be shaped by the schools with the clearest sense of purpose, the strongest capacity to learn, and the courage to navigate change together.
I am available to provide support for school leaders and board of trustees in developing an AI strategy for their school. Please contact me to discuss what might be appropriate in your setting. Email me – derek@futuremakers.nz
