Bridging the Digital Divide: Psychological and Social Implications of Equity in AI-Supported Science Teaching

Chapter Highlights  The chapter discusses digital divide in AI-supported science education, focusing on inequalities in access, infrastructure, digital literacy, and institutional readiness. It shows that unequal access to AI tools negatively affects learners’ self-efficacy, science identity, engagement and sense of belonging. It identifies key barriers, including poor infrastructure, limited teacher competence, algorithmic bias, weak policies and unequal resource distribution. It presents global evidence of how socioeconomic, gender, and geographic factors shape AI integration and learning outcomes in science education. The chapter concludes that equitable AI-supported science education requires inclusive policies, ethical frameworks, infrastructure development, teacher training and culturally responsive practices. It recommends, among others, that government authorities prioritize infrastructure investment in under-resourced schools and establish national frameworks for ethical AI in education to promote equitable integration.