Meet the OEB26 Speakers: Mairéad Pratschke

Mairéad Pratschke is an independent researcher, author and advisor specialising in AI strategy, ethical governance and human-centred learning design. With over 25 years of experience in digital education and learning innovation, she explores how AI can support education while keeping human development and pedagogy at its centre.

She is the author of Generative AI and Education: Digital Pedagogies, Teaching Innovation and Learning Design (Springer, 2024) and a Visiting Professor at the LSE Data Science Institute. Her work focuses on human-AI collaboration, learning systems design and the future of education in an AI-driven world.

At OEB 2026, Mairéad will take part in the Annual Debate, arguing against the motion “This House Believes That AI Should Be the Teacher of the Future, Supported by Human Coaches.”

Ahead of her appearance in Berlin, we caught up with Mairéad to learn more about her work, her perspectives on AI sovereignty and what she is looking forward to at OEB 2026.

What was your first thought about this year’s conference theme “Sovereign Learning: Trust, Agency & the Education Reset”? 

Sovereign can mean many things – it’s both a noun and an adjective, for starters! In the context of AI and education, I thought immediately of AI sovereignty in terms of models. I wrote a blog post on the pursuit of AI sovereignty as the new global arms race in January 2025 for LSE but this is a much friendlier spin on it. In Hong Kong this summer, I talked about AI sovereignty in terms of what the Bangkok Declaration said about the need for models that speak all of the world’s 7,000 languages. So, sovereignty can be political, cultural – or, of course, educational. In our context, we need models that reflect the plurality of the human experience – not just those of Silicon Valley. So, I am intrigued by the idea of both “sovereign” learning and the idea of an education reset and look forward to hearing other people’s ideas about what exactly needs to be reset and by whom.

If you could look into the year 2046, what do you envision learning will be driven by? 

Hopefully by the need to all live well together on this beautiful planet. Sometimes it feels like our various goals are incredibly siloed but really they are all connected. We cannot learn and grow if we don’t have clean water and a secure roof over our heads. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is top of my mind right now, as the autumn of discontent plays out all across Europe, where people are protesting for better classrooms and affordable housing. Without those things, learning becomes a luxury.

Which learning technology has recently impressed you? 

Thaura LLM, an independent, self-funded AI model built as an ethical alternative to Big Tech, founded by two Syrian brothers who now live in Germany.

Which book should everyone read?  

Why, mine, of course! Generative AI and Education: Digital Pedagogies, Teaching Innovation and Learning Design (Springer, 2024). Or my earlier one on film and history, Visions of Ireland: Gael Linn’s Amharc Éireann Film Series, 1956–1964 (Peter Lang, 2015). That book is on the visual representation of identity in a collection of documentary films made in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which turned out to be an important turning point in Irish history. I am a cultural and political historian by training, and fascinated by periods of transformation and their impact on our societies. There is a lot we can learn from history that we could apply to the present AI moment.

What was your most significant learning experience? 

Being a lifelong nomad. I’ve taken the Irish habit of emigration and made it a lifestyle. There is nothing like landing in a new country where you don’t know anyone and can’t speak the language to build resilience and adaptability – two of the most important “future skills” we need right now. Leaving your comfort zone is the best catalyst for learning.

 

What would be the title of your autobiography? 

On the Road. Oh wait, that one’s taken. The Trail Less Taken?

What are you looking forward to the most at this year’s OEB?  

This will be my first ever OEB and I’ve heard this is a fantastic conference energy-wise. The line-up of talks and sessions looks incredible, so I will be flying from room to room, trying to take it all in. And of course, the debate that I’ll be part of should be great fun – if a little terrifying!


Thank you, Mairéad! Mairéad Pratschke will be speaking at the Annual Debate: This House Believes That AI Should Be the Teacher of the Future, Supported by Human Coaches at OEB 2026.