Navigating Professional Risk

Ethical Responsibilities as a Worker What happens when professional ethics aren't about students—but about you?

This scenario-based learning activity explores AITSL Standard 7.1 through a critical lens—not as a checklist of responsibilities toward students, but as a framework for protecting pre-service teachers as workers. Participants investigate a scenario involving a deepfake video created “as a joke,” where the pre-service teacher is made to say false content in class. The scenario explores how such acts—however playful—can constitute psychosocial harm, undermine professional integrity, and require clear, rights-based responses. Drawing on training from the eSafety Commissioner, students consider how ethical obligations, reporting systems, and workplace protections must also apply to them. Arantes, J. (2025). Navigating Professional Risk: Ethical Responsibilities as a Worker. www.AI4education.org. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The Case of the Digital Double

You’re on your final professional placement in a Year 8 Science class. After a strong start, you feel confident—until Friday, when something strange happens. During pack-up, one student shows the class a video on their iPad. It’s a short, AI-generated clip of “you,” standing at the front of the same classroom, confidently saying: “Gravity is a myth made up by the government. The Earth is flat.” Your voice. Your face. Your classroom. Everyone laughs. “It’s just a deepfake, Miss—we made it ourselves! It’s hilarious!” someone says. “You’re a conspiracy theorist now!” You laugh it off in the moment—but inside, something doesn’t sit right. You didn’t say those things. You didn’t consent. Your professional identity has been digitally manipulated for entertainment. That night, you scroll through your course materials. In Semester 2, you completed the eSafety Commissioner’s training on AI-generated harms, including deepfakes, reputational abuse, and synthetic pornography. You remember the case studies—teachers whose faces were inserted into fake explicit content without consent. You think, This time it’s “just” misinformation. It could have been worse. Still, it doesn’t feel safe. Or respectful. You think to yourself..."While I still don't feel comofrtable - I know what to do thanks to my course. And I also know that it this was a sexualised deepfake, I would have known exactly what to do. I’m grateful I was educated about this - for me - even if I never imagined needing it.

“I didn’t feel unsafe because it was rude—I felt unsafe because it wasn’t me.”

Research Questions and Topics

  • research topics Deepfakes and teacher identity Psychosocial hazards and workplace wellbeing Ethics, consent, and humour in digital school cultures Professional boundaries for pre-service teachers Workplace rights in the context of emerging technologies research questions What ethical boundaries are crossed when AI is used to impersonate teachers? How can “harmless fun” cause reputational and psychosocial harm? What rights do pre-service teachers have when facing digital manipulation in schools? data collection Scenario Response Task: Students write a response protocol using WHS and eSafety frameworks Digital Ethics Audit: Groups review school policy documents for reporting and risk mitigation Critical Reflection: Journaling on how digital harms intersect with professional identity Roleplay Workshop: Practise escalating concerns to school leaders using real-world language
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  • More information here: https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/esafety-urges-schools-to-report-deepfakes-as-numbers-double

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Acknowledgement of CountryWe acknowledge the Ancestors, Elders, and families of the Kulin Nation, who are the Traditional Owners of the land where this work has been predominantly completed. As we share our own knowledge practices, we pay respect to the deep knowledge embedded within the Aboriginal community and recognise their custodianship of Country. We acknowledge that the land on which we meet, learn, and share knowledge is a place of age-old ceremonies of celebration, initiation, and renewal, and that the Traditional Owners’ living culture and practices continue to have a unique role in the life of this region.
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