Abstract
This study examines how secondary-school students recognize and relate to artificial intelligence (AI) and the meanings they attribute to it in their everyday lives. Using a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional design, we explore the subjectivities of a purposive sample of 576 students from both public and private schools. The analysis focuses on students’ use of AI across seven dimensions: teaching–learning, ethics and morality, emotions, personal development, cognition and creativity, social construction, and recreation and entertainment. Data were collected with an ad hoc instrument that showed high internal consistency (α = 0.89). The findings reveal a variety of positions, including emotional ambivalence, ethical uncertainty, autonomous learning, and diverse perceptions of the creative, social, and educational effects of AI. Although students express openness and interest in technology, they also voice doubts about its integration into school practices and its influence on critical thinking and personal initiative. The results underscore the need for educational policies and school practices aligned with Education 5.0 that foster critical, ethical, and humanistic uses of technology.
This research contributes to understanding the configuration of digital youth subjectivities and provides a broad framework for designing meaningful, contextualized, and inclusive pedagogical strategies that develop digital citizenship.