Exploring interfaces and implications for integrating social-emotional competencies into AI literacy for education: a narrative review

Synthesis: Palmquist, Sigurdardottir, and Myhre (2025) conduct a narrative literature review examining the intersection of AI literacy and social-emotional competencies (SEC) in education, proposing an integrated framework to create a supportive, technologically adept, and emotionally intelligent educational ecosystem. Grounded in the SETCOM project, the review identifies three key themes — AI's transformative potential in reshaping educational practices, its influence on educational providers and stakeholders, and the ethical considerations of AI integration — and argues that integrating AI literacy with SEC can enhance educational outcomes by promoting personalized learning, fostering collaboration, and addressing ethical challenges.

Key Findings

AI literacy and SEC are complementary: technical proficiency alone is insufficient for navigating AI-mediated learning environments; combining technological understanding with relational and emotional intelligence supports a holistic approach to skill development.

Three themes emerged from thematic analysis of the literature: (1) AI's transformative potential (reshaping educational practices, adapting to student needs, demanding human-centred, ethical design); (2) AI's influence on educational providers and stakeholders (changing teachers' roles, functions, and attitudes, and the need for collaboration with external stakeholders); and (3) ethical considerations of AI integration (data privacy, algorithmic bias, equitable access, and responsible decision-making).

Personalisation and relational practices: AI-driven personalisation (intelligent tutoring, adaptive learning) parallels SEC's focus on teacher-student and student-student relationships; AI should deepen — not replace — human connections in learning environments.

Educators' roles are shifting: as AI automates administrative tasks, educators can focus more on guiding students' emotional and cognitive development, where human touch is indispensable (drawing on Selwyn); teacher training should incorporate SEC-infused AI literacy.

A robust framework should blend AI literacy with SEC, fostering critical thinking, ethical awareness, empathy, self-management, and responsible decision-making, so that technological advancement supports rather than undermines human connection.

Study Design & Method

This is a narrative literature review building on the knowledge base of the SETCOM project (Supportive Environments to Enhance Transversal Competencies in Education). A curated bibliography of 64 sources (31 on AI, 18 on SEC, 13 on both) was compiled from expert recommendations, then filtered through two stages: (1) inclusion/exclusion criteria (peer-reviewed sources in English, AI sources post-2017) and (2) quality assessment, removing 43 sources to leave a data corpus of 19. Sources were categorized into three groups (C1: AI in Education, n=8; C2: SEC in Education, n=7; C3: AI and SEC in Education, n=4). The corpus was thematically synthesized using a three-stage approach (pre-analysis, exploration, treatment/interpretation) informed by Ferrari (2015), with MAXQDA used for coding and analysis. The reviewed literature spanned primary (57.1%), secondary (46.4%), higher (35.7%), adult (17.9%), pre-school (14.3%), special-needs (10.7%), and teacher-training (3.6%) education contexts.

Implications for AI in Education

The review proposes an integrated framework that equips educators and students with both technological and emotional intelligence, arguing that AI literacy should not be reduced to technical skill but integrated with social-emotional competencies to support Self Regulated Learning and relational practices. It positions educators as needing both technological skill and emotional intelligence to prepare students for AI-rich futures, connecting to Teacher AI Competency, Teacher Role, and teacher training. It emphasizes that AI-driven personalisation can enhance relational dynamics if designed carefully, and that ethical literacy (data privacy, bias, equity, responsible decision-making) must be embedded in AI curricula. The review is relevant to AI Literacy, Affective Computing, and Ethics, and supports a human-centred approach to AI in education where digital and relational competencies are equally valued.

Limitations

As a narrative review, the study faces potential selection bias and subjective interpretation of findings (acknowledged by the authors), and its small final corpus (19 sources) reflects a curated rather than exhaustive literature base. The AI sources were limited to post-2017 publications, which may not capture the most recent rapid advances, and the review synthesizes concepts as of its curation date. The SEC literature was not subject to the same 2017 cutoff, creating asymmetry. The proposed integrated framework is conceptual and requires empirical validation.

Connected Concepts

AI Literacy

Affective Computing

Teacher AI Competency

Ethics

Pedagogical Safety

Teacher Role

Social Emotional Learning

Self Regulated Learning

Connected Articles

Hingle Collaborative AI Literacy 2025 — Collaborative AI Literacy

AI TPACK Preservice Math Teachers — AI-TPACK and Pre-Service Math Teachers

The Scaffolded AI Literacy Sail Framework Results Of A Delphi Study For Equitabl — The Scaffolded AI literacy (SAIL) framework

GenAI Teacher Feedback Comparison — Comparing Generative AI and Teacher Feedback

GenAI Literacy Training Teacher Education Dbr 2026 — AI Literacy Training for Teachers

Citation

Palmquist, A., Sigurdardottir, H. D., & Myhre, H. (2025). Exploring interfaces and implications for integrating social-emotional competencies into AI literacy for education: A narrative review. Journal of Computers in Education, 13, 127–163.