Exploring Japanese pre-service teachers' experiences and reflections on text-to-image generative AI in art education.

This article investigates Japanese pre-service art teachers' perspectives on integrating text-to-image generative artificial intelligence (AI) in K–12 art education through a hands-on workshop at Tokyo Gakugei University. Participants identified both opportunities—such as enhancing creativity, expanding visual ideas, and reducing teachers' administrative workload—and challenges, including concerns about diminished student agency, reduced tactile engagement, potential loss of artistic originality, and threats to teacher professional identity. The study highlights the complex interplay between optimism and skepticism, noting AI's tendency to reproduce dominant visual styles and the importance of critical human oversight in guiding AI outputs. These findings contribute to ongoing discussions on how teacher education can prepare educators to critically and creatively engage with generative AI's evolving role in art pedagogy.