Monthly Update
Monthly Update: Taking AI seriously by bringing theory and practice together
July has been a month of looking both inward and outward. At the Barker Institute we've continued asking practical questions about how schools should respond to artificial intelligence, while also exploring the bigger questions of what AI means for education.
We have also been asking how educational research connects with global challenges, and what we can learn through conversations with colleagues around the world. Four ideas sat at the centre of our work this month. Here's what they were, and where you can read more.
Evidence Before Enthusiasm – AI Professional Learning for Barker Staff
Barker's approach to AI is very much about grounding decisions in evidence. This month that meant gathering the whole staff body for our second Annual AI Staff Conference. Keynote speakers from the University of Sydney Business School set the tone, before the pre-release of a landmark Rapid Literature Review of 274 peer-reviewed studies took centre stage, followed by evidence-based workshops tailored to each staff group including opportunity for teachers to develop their own AI tools across every subject to maximise meaningful learning opportunities. Details about the public launch of this valuable study can be reached by clicking here.
At its heart: AI is here, teachers must be trained to take responsibility for helping shape how it is understood and used.
Read more: A School That Takes AI Seriously where Barker Institute Director Dr Matthew Hill unpacks what this deliberate, sustained, research-informed posture looks like in practice.
Testing Our Thinking on the World Stage – Global conferences and gatherings on AI in Education
Part of taking AI seriously is testing our thinking against the best of what's happening elsewhere. Barker Institute Director Dr Matthew Hill spent a fortnight doing exactly that (first at the Lakefield College School Summer AI Institute in Canada, then at the AIED 2026 Conference in Seoul) sharing Barker's research and returning with confirmation that our agenda sits at the leading edge of global scholarship.
At its heart: International engagement strengthens local practice by connecting Barker's work with leading educational research and innovation around the world.
Read more: International Engagement Week 1 and International Engagement Week 2
What AI Reveals About Us – Comparing the AI gospel and the Christian Gospel
Beneath every technical question about AI sits a deeper one: what does this technology reveal about what it means to be human? In the first instalment of a five-part series, Research Fellow (Christian Education) Rev Craig Tubman compares the AI gospel and the Christian gospel and what that means for us. In the second instalment, Tubman reflects on what AI doing to our understanding of what it means to be human.
At their heart: The most important AI questions are not technological ones but questions about humanity, purpose and wisdom.
Read more: What Story is AI Telling Us? and What are humans becoming with AI?
Schools Don't Educate in a Vacuum – How global macro influences impact education
The best educational research connects what happens in classrooms with the wider forces shaping our students' lives including: conflict, migration, technology, global uncertainty. Principal Research Fellow Dr Tim Scott reflects on this, drawing on the Sydney launch of the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Peace Index 2026 he attended earlier in July and Barker's own history of research shaping practice, from Marri Mittigar to the ongoing Barker Journey study.
At its heart: The best educational research is not just for schools but is in fact something that builds our understanding of the world our students are inheriting.
Barker Institute
The Barker Institute is the research and professional learning centre of Barker College, an Anglican co-educational school in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 2014, and building on research in learning work that had been taking place since 2008, it is one of the original school-based educational research centres in the country and it brings together teachers, researchers, students, and academic partners to pursue close-to-practice research. The Barker Institute's team consists of people who are simultaneously experienced educators and experienced researchers, bringing a unique voice to research in education. Its Research Agenda spans classroom experience, Christian education, character and enterprise, humanitarian education, and robotics and innovation. These sit alongside its two significant projects: The Barker Journey, an ongoing, decade long longitudinal study, and AI, Learning, and the Developing Person, a three-year project aligning research and practice guided by the question: What is the impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence on young minds (PreK-12)? Guided by the conviction that knowledge is for sharing, the Barker Institute seeks to inform policy, improve practice, and inspire thoughtful action grounded in the realities of school life.
