A global school network2026 – 2027
Students and teachers, side by side, weaving the future of AI in school.
One shared question across six countries — what does it mean to learn well, and be well, in a world caught between AI’s promises and its risks?
An invitation to join the network co-sponsored by the Government of Canada — Digital Citizen Program.
Six countries to date
- Canada
- New Zealand
- Australia
- Ireland
- Norway
- Finland
From the YAIRN network
Scans, documents, reports and insights
Scan
Scan 7: AI and Students with Exceptionalities
Supporting the learning and wellbeing of students with exceptionalities and special needs - seen through a student lens, a teacher lens and a concerned parent lens
Open PDFScan
Scan 6: AI and the Indigenous Learner
Indigenous ways of knowing, data sovereignty and language learning - the opportunities and risks of AI for Indigenous learners across Canada, the Sámi homelands of Finland and Norway, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand
Open PDFScan
Scan 5: Looking Ahead: Where Students and Teachers Think AI Will Be by 2030
A focused foresight scan - using the Futures Triangle and the Three Horizons - with concerns about AGI, quantum computing and empathic robots, and what they could mean for teaching, learning and assessment
Open PDFScan
Scan 4: What Teachers Think, Say and Feel About AI
Where teacher and student concerns meet, and where the teacher’s are different - a K-12, evidence-based companion to SCAN 3
Open PDFWhy this, why now
The AI conversation globally is missing the voices it needs most.
Marginal student voice
National AI strategies focus almost solely on business and industry sector outcomes; young people are largely absent.
Little indigenous or local community perspective
Global frameworks rarely address data sovereignty or the experience of indigenous and marginalized learners.
No locally-grounded evidence
Schools are left to navigate AI without research reflecting their own students' realities.
Why “YAIRN”
Yarn — the material from which something larger is woven.
YAIRN brings students and teachers together as research partners, pulling many threads into one shared fabric.
Youth AI Research Network
Students and teachers as research partners — not subjects of research, but authors of it.
The year, in three cycles
May 2026 — May 2027, with partner schools.
The first year of a research initiative supported by an interactive digital portal and face-to-face interactions.
May – August 2026
Initiate & develop
Confirm school teams, launch the Global Network Platform, and connect schools across all partner countries.
August 2026 – Jan 2027
Support & sustain
On-boarding of student-led site-based participatory action research with research support. Team leads reconvene at ICSEI Banff and other sites.
Jan – May 2027
Assess & sustain
Findings gather across regional hubs. The network outlasts the funding and continues to grow.
What gets done
Students building the future they desire.
They design research questions, gather evidence in their own schools, and contribute to a shared knowledge base feeding policy and curriculum.
- Support collective inquiry and student agency
- Co-created futures-oriented AI curriculum resources
- Interactive portal for knowledge mobilization
- Student-generated research to inform policies and practices
The network’s thread
Each partner country brings its own relationship to ways of knowing.
Including indigenous knowledge systems, culture and civil society traditions. YAIRN strives to include local voice and community-grounded AI ethics inside the international conversations about the possible futures of AI in education.
Get involved
Four ways to be involved.
Funder
Support student-led research and agency including the travel that enables students to include their country in international school exchanges.
Network partner
Sector organisations, teacher unions, or education agencies who want student voice embedded in AI policy work.
Collaborator
Organisations with existing youth-voice or AI research can contribute data, methodology, and credibility in exchange for shared findings.
School supporter
Trusts or organisations who want to sponsor a school team directly — covering release time or international travel.
Let’s start a conversation
We’re looking for partners who see what we see.
Young people deserve a seat at the table when AI futures are being shaped. If that sounds like a conversation worth having, get in touch.
Project coordinators
J-C Couture
jcouture@ualberta.caStephen Murgatroyd
smurgatr@ualberta.ca
Authors of AI Unplugged — The Hype and Hope in Education Futures (Routledge, 2026).