E26 Human by Design: Teacher Agency and Curated Crossings in the AI Era as a "co-pilot" in their professional practice to enhance efficiency in preparing materials, such as adapting complex texts for different proficiency levels or generating novel exercises. As one teacher shared, "it was really easy... it made it really fast" (Natalie). Concurrently, they identified a new and crucial pedagogical responsibility: to cultivate students’ critical AI literacy. This included not only teaching students to evaluate the accuracy and potential biases of AI outputs but also instructing them in the essential skill of prompt engineering. As one teacher articulated this new role, it is "to teach them how to use AI and then how to check AI" (Shira). This dual role positions teachers as lifelong learners who are themselves adapting to, and making sense of, a new technological reality. Discussion The findings position AI integration as a significant boundary space where teachers’ professional identities are not merely disrupted, but actively and deliberately renegotiated. This aligns with Beauchamp and Thomas's (2011) original conception of boundary spaces as transitional arenas, yet it extends the theory by demonstrating that such spaces are not limited to career-stage shifts but can also be triggered by technological disruption, a gap previously noted in the literature (Rushton et al., 2023). This study’s primary theoretical contribution is twofold. First, it conceptualizes the process of "curated crossing". Teachers in this study did not passively react to technological change; they actively designed the terms of engagement. This agentic process, visible in their evolution from a protective stance (Theme 3) to the proactive design of pedagogical scaffolds, moves beyond general notions of teacher agency by highlighting the specific, design-oriented nature of their response. While scholars have long emphasized teachers' roles as active agents (Edwards, 2006), the concept of "curation" underscores a more deliberate and architectural role: teachers are not just responding to change but are actively constructing the very architecture of that change within their local context. Second, the findings reveal that this crossing is navigated through an "identity-infused i-TPACK". Building on the foundational work of Mishra and Koehler (2006) and the AI-specific extension by Celik (2023), our study shows that the mobilization of techno-pedagogical knowledge is not a neutral act. It was directly filtered through teachers’ core professional identities (Sachs, 2005). Their deep-seated commitment to being language knowers (Theme 1) and providers of emotional care (Theme 2) fundamentally shaped how they enacted their TPACK. This supports recent arguments that disciplinary culture is the very basis of a teacher's identity and underpins their use of digital tools (Starkey et al., 2023). Our findings give empirical weight to this idea, demonstrating that i-TPACK is not an abstract set of competencies but a framework that is lived and embodied through the professional self. Together, these concepts provide a more dynamic model for understanding teacher adaptation to technological disruption, reframing it as a process of agentic design and identity affirmation, rather than one of passive reception or resistance. Practical Implications The findings of this study offer clear, actionable implications for stakeholders in higher education who are navigating the integration of AI. For institutional policymakers: The study highlights the need to move beyond simple prohibitions or fear-based policies regarding AI. Instead, institutions should develop transparent "responsible use" policies that frame AI as a pedagogical tool. This involves creating clear guidelines on citation,
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