Decolonizing AI Ethics in Education: A Systematic Review and the Framework for Glocalized AI Ethics in Education (FGAIEE)

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into educational systems has intensified global efforts to establish ethical guidelines governing its use. However, prevailing AI ethics frameworks in education remain predominantly shaped by Global North epistemologies, universalist moral assumptions, and centralized governance models. As a result, ethical principles frequently fail to translate into contextually legitimate or enforceable practices, particularly in Global South and postcolonial educational settings. This study addresses this gap by critically examining how AI ethics in education is produced, governed, and operationalized across diverse contexts. Using a PRISMA-guided systematic review of 84 peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2025, this study employs an integrated PICo–Thematic synthesis to examine populations, interests, and contexts that are often marginalized in global AI ethics discourse. The analysis reveals three core findings: (1) AI ethics frameworks in education are heavily centralized in Global North institutions, with limited participatory governance and persistent algorithmic bias; (2) pluriversal and localized ethical practices—grounded in Indigenous knowledge systems, communal ethics, and culturally embedded pedagogies—have emerged as viable counter-models; and (3) ethical effectiveness is empirically associated with governance mechanisms that embed ethics into institutional participation, procurement, and accountability structures rather than voluntary principle adoption. Building on these findings, the study advances the Framework for Glocalized AI Ethics in Education (FGAIEE) as its central theoretical contribution. FGAIEE reconceptualizes AI ethics as a multi-scalar governance process that integrates epistemic pluriversality, participatory oversight, and structural enforceability. Rather than proposing another universal ethics model, the framework enables ethical coordination between global AI infrastructures and locally articulated educational values. This study contributes to scholarship on AI ethics, education, and decolonial governance by translating critical theory into an operational framework with global relevance. By repositioning ethics as an issue of epistemic justice and institutional design, FGAIEE offers policymakers, educators, and researchers a pathway to move AI ethics in education from symbolic compliance toward structural redress.