Bildung at a crossroads: teacher education in the age of GenAI

Educational systems in Scandinavia have long been concerned with Bildung in relation to digital technologies. The rise of generative AI (GenAI) has renewed this attention as GenAI reshapes how learners engage with knowledge, culture and society. This study explores how teacher educators conceptualize Bildung and respond to challenges posed by GenAI in teacher education. Through reflexive thematic analysis, framed by interpretative repertoires, we explore 20 semi-structured interviews with teacher educators and analyze their discursive understandings of Bildung and GenAI. We identified three Bildung repertoires: Individual Bildung (individual becoming), Social/Societal Bildung (growth through encountering the ‘other’), and Teacher-Professional Bildung (professional becoming). These repertoires frame Bildung as a relational, reflective, value-based process, challenged by efficiency-driven educational discourses and GenAI’s affordances. Teacher educators also articulated three GenAI repertoires: phenomenological (the illusion of meaning-making), epistemological (blurring distinctions between information and knowledge) and ontological (disrupting human being and agency). Teacher educators expressed ambivalence, perceiving GenAI as both a threat to Bildung ideals and a catalyst for renewed reflection on educational purposes. We propose that teacher education and schools address GenAI as a phenomenon, foster epistemological awareness, and engage with ontological questions about being and becoming in a digital age.