Generative Artificial Intelligence in University Teaching: Perceptions, Practical Applications, and Ethical and Pedagogical Challenges

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54674/ess.v37i2.1110
Keywords: artificial intelligence (AI), Higher Education, qualitative thematic analysis, critical digital literacy, instructional design of educational materials

Abstract

This paper analyzes university teachers’ perceptions of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the design of didactic materials, aiming to understand their levels of adoption, attitudes, and barriers toward these emerging tools. Using a qualitative interpretative approach and thematic content analysis, open-ended responses from 206 professors participating in the seminar Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education at the Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa were examined. Findings reveal an incipient adoption of AI, mainly characterized by instrumental uses for creating presentations, assessments, and textual content. Nevertheless, pedagogical imaginaries emerge that recognize its potential for personalization, innovation, and educational accessibility. The main barriers identified were formative, ethical, and time-related, suggesting the need to strengthen teacher training from a pedagogical rather than a merely technical perspective. The study concludes that integrating AI into university teaching requires a process of critical digital literacy that fosters ethical reflection and pedagogical creativity. It recommends promoting institutional programs of continuous training and comparative studies analyzing the evolution of these practices across disciplinary contexts.

Author Biographies

Abel Antonio Grijalva Verdugo, Autonomous University of the West, Culiacán, Mexico

Full-time research professor at the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente in Mexico and a Level II member of the National System of Researchers (SECIHTI). He holds a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in Education and conducts research on educational processes, communication, media and digital literacy, social inclusion, and community empowerment in regional and vulnerable contexts. He was a Merit postdoctoral fellow of the Government of Quebec for a fellowship at McGill University, Canada. Leader of the “Education and Psychosocial Processes” Academic Group, author of academic books, and member of national and international networks for educational research, communication, and digital literacy.

César Roberto Jiménez Ramírez, Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Culiacán and Mazatlán, Mexico.

Ph.D. candidate in Education at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Mexico. He holds a Master’s degree in Educational Technology and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. He works as a professor in higher education and graduate programs, with experience in techno-pedagogical design and the coordination of virtual learning environments geared toward online educational programs and continuing education projects. His research focuses on the pedagogical usability of online courses, student perceptions of online learning, and the integration of artificial intelligence into teaching. He is also a member of research groups specializing in educational technology.

María Guadalupe Soto Decuir, Autonomous University of Sinaloa, Culiacán and Mazatlán, Mexico.

She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the Autonomous University of Sinaloa and is a university professor with a background in education, technology, and pedagogical innovation. Her work focuses on digital literacy, teaching competencies, educational inclusion, and the transformation of higher education in Latin America. Affiliated with the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, her academic profile emphasizes the field of education and technology. She has participated in research on educational experiences, digital subjectivities, and critical pedagogies, contributing to international debates on educational justice, digital citizenship, and learning in contemporary societies, with a situated, ethical, and interdisciplinary perspective.

Juan José Ramírez Gámez, Sinaloa State Pedagogical University, Culiacán, Mexico.

He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Development and is a faculty member and researcher at the Pedagogical University of the State of Sinaloa. He is a Candidate-level member of the National System of Researchers (SNII) and is currently pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Autonomous University of the West. His research focuses on inclusive education, teacher training, and the analysis of barriers to learning and participation, with a particular interest in emerging approaches to educational inclusion. She has published articles and book chapters on educational inclusion, violence, and higher education, in addition to serving as a speaker and thesis advisor in various academic settings.

Yessica Sandybel Garduño Espinoza, Autonomous University of Baja California, Ensenada, Mexico.

Ph.D. in Educational Management and Policy. Master’s degree in Educational Sciences and Bachelor’s degree in Education. She serves as a full-time professor and researcher in the School of Administrative and Social Sciences at the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC); she meets the PRODEP eligibility criteria and is a member of the academic group “Educational Processes, Assessment, and Context.” She coordinates the Bachelor of Education Sciences program at the School of Administrative and Social Sciences at UABC. She is a candidate-level member of the National System of Researchers. She has contributed to various publications, including book chapters, articles, and conference presentations.

References

Álvarez-Roldan, A. (2025). Análisis temático de textos con R. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15667595
Aparicio-Gómez, O. & Aparicio-Gómez, W. (2024). Innovación educativa con sistemas de aprendizaje adaptativo impulsados por Inteligencia Artificial. Revista Internacional de Pedagogía e Innovación Educativa, 4(2), 343-363. https://doi.org/10.51660/ripie42222
Aparicio-Gómez, W. (2023). La inteligencia artificial y su incidencia en la educación: Transformando el aprendizaje para el siglo XXI. Revista internacional de pedagogía e innovación educativa: RIPIE, 3(2), 217-229. https://doi.org/10.51660/ripie.v3i2.133
Arbeláez, S., & Onrubia, J. (2014). Estrategias de andamiaje en entornos virtuales de aprendizaje. En Díaz, F. (2018). Educación y tecnología. Editorial Académica.
Area Moreira, M., Guarro Pallás, A., Marrero Acosta, J. & Sosa Alonso, J. J. (2022). La transformación digital de la docencia universitaria. Profesorado, Revista De Currículum y Formación del Profesorado, 26(2), 1–5. (https://revistaseug.ugr.es/index.php/profesorado/article/view/25560)
Ayuso del Puerto, D. & Gutiérrez Esteban, P. (2022). La Inteligencia Artificial como recurso educativo durante la formación inicial del profesorado. RIED-Revista Iberoamericana de Educación a Distancia, 25(2), 347–362. https://doi.org/10.5944/ried.25.2.32332
Bentz, V. M., & Shapiro, J. J. (1998). Mindful inquiry in social research. Sage Publications.
Braun, V., & Clarke V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Cerón-Garnica, C., Fernández Pérez, J., Archundia Sierra, E. & Flores Santos, A. (2024). Herramientas de la inteligencia artificial en la práctica docente en educación media superior. Tecnología Educativa Revista CONAIC, 11(1), 67-72. https://www.terc.mx/index.php/terc/article/view/381
Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory. Sage Publications.
Cordón García, O. (2023). Inteligencia Artificial en Educación Superior: Oportunidades y Riesgos. RiiTE Revista interuniversitaria de investigación en Tecnología Educativa, (15), 16–27. https://doi.org/10.6018/riite.591581
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2018). The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (5th ed.). Sage Publications.
Díaz-Herrera, C. (2018). Investigación cualitativa y análisis de contenido temático. Orientación intelectual de revista Universum. Revista General de Información y Documentación, 28(1), 119-142. https://doi.org/10.5209/RGID.60813
Eisner, E. W. (1998). The enlightened eye: Qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practice. Prentice Hall.
Etikan, I., Musa, S. A. & Alkassim, R. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. American journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1-4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11
Flick, U. (2007). Designing qualitative research. Sage Publications.
García Peña, V., Mora Marcillo, A. & Ávila Ramírez, J. (2020). La inteligencia artificial en la educación. Dominio de las Ciencias, 6(3), 648–666. https://doi.org/10.23857/dc.v6i3.1421
Guamán Inga, L., Quezada Ureña, S., López Fernández, R. & Gómez Rodríguez, V. (2023). Programa de capacitación para la actualización sobre Inteligencia Artificial como herramienta didáctica en los docentes. MQR Investigar, 7(4), 1721–1738. https://doi.org/10.56048/MQR20225.7.4.2023.1721-1738
Guest, G., MacQueen, K. M., & Namey, E. E. (2012). Applied thematic analysis. Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483384436
Hernández Escobar, A., Ramos Rodríguez, M., Placencia López, B., Indacochea Ganchozo, B., Quimis Gómez, A., & Moreno Ponce, L. (2018). Metodología de la investigación científica (Vol. 15). 3Ciencias. http://dx.doi.org/10.17993/CcyLl.2018.15
Jiménez Builes, J. A., & Ovalle Carranza, D. A. (2008). Uso de técnicas de inteligencia artificial en ambientes distribuidos de enseñanza/aprendizaje. Revista Educación En Ingeniería, 3(5), 98–106. https://doi.org/10.26507/rei.v3n5.156
Jiménez Ramírez, C. R., Martínez Aguirre , E. G., Zárate Depraect, N. E., & Grijalva Verdugo, A. A. (2024). Adopción de la Inteligencia Artificial en la enseñanza: perspectivas de docentes de Educación Superior. REVISTA PARAGUAYA DE EDUCACIÓN A DISTANCIA (REPED), 5(2), 5–16. https://doi.org/10.56152/reped2024-dossierIA1-art1
Krippendorff, K. (2013). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.
Losito, B. (1993). La investigación cualitativa en educación. En Díaz, F. (2018). Educación y tecnología. Editorial Académica.
Marradi, A., Archenti, N., & Piovani, J. (2007). Metodología de las ciencias sociales. En Díaz, F. (2018). Educación y tecnología. Editorial Académica.
Mayring, P. (2000). Qualitative content analysis. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 1(2), Art. 20.
Nivela Cornejo, M. & Echeverría Desiderio, S. (2024). Desafíos y Perspectivas de la Inteligencia Artificial en la Educación Superior. Código Científico Revista de Investigación, 5(1), 1446-1464. https://doi.org/10.55813/gaea/ccri/v5/n1/463
Ocaña Fernández, Y., Valenzuela Fernández, L. A., & Garro Aburto, L. L. (2019). Inteligencia artificial y sus implicaciones en la educación superior. Propósitos y representaciones, 7(2), 536-568. https://dx.doi.org/10.20511/pyr2019.v7n2.274
Real-Torres, C. (2019). Materiales Didácticos Digitales: un recurso innovador en la docencia del siglo XXI. 3C TIC. Cuadernos de desarrollo aplicados a las TIC, 8(2), 12-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.17993/3ctic.2019.82.12-27
Romero-Chaves, C. (2005). La categorización un aspecto crucial en la investigación cualitativa. Revista de investigaciones Cesmag, 11(11), 113-118. https://biblioteca.unicesmag.edu.co/digital/revinv/0123-1340v11n11pp113.pdf
Sanabria Navarro, J., Silveira Pérez, Y., Pérez Bravo, D., & Cortina Núñez, M. (2023). Incidencias de la inteligencia artificial en la educación contemporánea. Comunicar: Revista Científica de Comunicación y Educación, 31(77), 97-107. https://doi.org/10.3916/C77-2023-08
Sánchez Vera, M. (2024). La inteligencia artificial como recurso docente: usos y posibilidades para el profesorado. Educar, 60(1), 33-47. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/educar.1810
Schreier, M. (2012). Qualitative Content Analysis in Practice. Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529682571
Sosa de Wood, P., Jiménez Chaves, V., & Riego Esteche, A. (2024). El análisis de la percepción de los profesores respecto al uso de la Inteligencia Artificial. Revista EDUCA UMCH, (24), 66–77. https://doi.org/10.35756/educaumch.202424.293
Stella Serrano, C. (2023). La llegada de la inteligencia artificial y el problema de la evaluación en la docencia universitaria. El sistema educativo en crisis. Encuentros multidisciplinares. http://hdl.handle.net/10486/711916
Tomalá De La Cruz, M., Mascaró Benites, E., Carrasco Cachinelli, C. G. & Aroni Caicedo, E. (2023). Incidencias de la inteligencia artificial en la educación. RECIMUNDO, 7(2), 238-251. https://doi.org/10.26820/recimundo/7.(2).jun.2023.238-251
Transparencia UAS (2025). Matrícula Escolar. Transparencia y acceso a la información de la Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa. http://transparencia.uasnet.mx/2023/?seccion=3&subseccion=2
UNESCO (2024). AI competency framework for teachers. https://doi.org/10.54675/ZJTE2084
Vera, F. (2023). Integración de la Inteligencia Artificial en la Educación superior: Desafíos y oportunidades. Transformar, 4(1), 17–34. Recuperado a partir de https://www.revistatransformar.cl/index.php/transformar/article/view/84
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
Published
2026-05-30
How to Cite
Grijalva Verdugo, A. A., Jiménez Ramírez, C. R., Soto Decuir, M. G., Ramírez Gámez, J. J., & Garduño Espinoza, Y. S. (2026). Generative Artificial Intelligence in University Teaching: Perceptions, Practical Applications, and Ethical and Pedagogical Challenges. Higher Education and Society Journal (ESS), 37(2), 308-326. https://doi.org/10.54674/ess.v37i2.1110
Issue
Vol 37 No 2 (2025): Artificial Generative Intelligence (GenAI) in teaching and research: best practices, challenges, and prospects
Section
Articles Thematic Dossier

Copyright (c) 2025 Abel Antonio Grijalva Verdugo, César Roberto Jiménez Ramírez , María Guadalupe Soto Decuir, Juan José Ramírez Gámez, Yessica Sandybel Garduño Espinoza

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Copyright notice

Copyright allows the protection of original material, and curbs the use of others' work without permission. UNESCO IESALC adheres to Creative Commons licenses in the open access publication of ESS. Specifically, texts published in this journal are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license: ESS is an open access journal, which means that all content is freely available to the user or their institution. Users may read, download, copy, distribute, print, search or link to the full text of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author, always making sure to cite the author. Commercial use is not permitted. ESS requires authors to accept the Copyright Notice as part of the submission process. Authors retain all rights.

The full license can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/  

Attribution - NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0)

This journal does not charge authors for the submission or processing of articles. The authors of the contributions will receive acknowledgment of receipt that the work has reached the Editorial Team of the Journal.