Rehumanising teaching innovation in higher education: A human-centred framework for pedagogy, human agency and responsible AI

Abstract

In higher education, teaching innovation is often equated with digital adoption, obscuring the pedagogical and human conditions that make educational change meaningful. This conceptual paper develops a Human-Centred Teaching Innovation Framework through purposive theory synthesis of foundational scholarship, research reviews, empirical studies and policy guidance. The synthesis is interpretive rather than a systematic review or bibliometric analysis. Six interdependent dimensions are distinguished by their functions: pedagogical purpose sets the evaluative direction; educator capability, student agency, ethical technology use and assessment authenticity govern enactment and evidence; and institutional support enables and sustains implementation. The proposed contribution is not the discovery of six new constructs but their role-differentiated alignment, including explicit attention to tensions between AI-enabled efficiency, learner agency and credible evidence of learning. The framework advances six conceptual propositions for future empirical assessment and offers implications for teaching and assessment in accounting, finance and business education.