This paper discusses whether robots can become teachers and the role development of teachers in the era of artificial intelligence. The core issue focuses on the controversy over the teacher identity of robots: from the perspective of functionalism, technological progress may enable robots to realize the function of teachers, but at the pedagogical epistemological level, the answer is no: teachers and students are “concrete people”, and their subjectivity and teaching uncertainty cannot be reduced to a collection of functions. This paper clarifies the evolution of the concept of “dual teachers”, and points out that teacher robots, as artifacts that simulate teachers’ functions, are fundamentally different from human teachers: human teachers are the main body of education, undertaking the mission of knowledge transmission, student socialization and cultivating “new people of the times”, and teaching is the complex practice of “cultivating specific people with specific people”. Robots are only functional substitutes, lacking real subjectivity and humanistic spirit, and their “pseudo-subjectivity” cannot replace the ethical interaction and meaning guidance of human teachers. In the era of artificial intelligence, teachers shoulder a new mission: as education leaders, they need to adhere to the essence of “weak education” to ensure the generative and communicative nature of teaching, guiding students (learning creators) to think independently and use AI tools rationally. At the level of professional development, AI can expand the boundaries of teachers’ capabilities, but it faces ethical challenges such as emotional dissonance and algorithmic bias, and it is necessary to build an integrated system of “evaluation, training, service, teaching and research, and supervision” to promote “human-machine co-teaching” through virtual and real training. It is found that artificial intelligence promotes the innovation of “human-machine collaboration” teaching, but the dominant position of human teachers is irreplaceable, and it is necessary to adhere to the humanistic core of education in technology empowerment and explore new paths for teachers’ professional development.

Qiuzhong Ou, Wen Huang. Research on the New Mission and Development of College Teachers in the Era of Artificial Intelligence. Frontiers in Educational Research (2025), Vol. 8, Issue 8: 17-112. https://doi.org/10.25236/FER.2025.080817.

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