BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Higher education teachers' perspectives on the ethical challenges of using artificial intelligence – A case study in the Alto Alentejo Region, Portugal
Provisionally accepted
- 1Politecnico de Portalegre Escola Superior de Saude, Portalegre, Portugal
- 2Centre for Research in Health and Social Sciences (CARE), Portalegre, Portugal
- 3Centre for English, Translation and Anglo-Portuguese Studies (CETAPS), Lisbon, Portugal
- 4Life Quality Research Center (LQRC), Leiria, Portugal
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Understanding teachers' ethical perceptions is essential for responsible AI integration in academic environments. A mixed-methods, cross-sectional study was conducted, combining quantitative descriptive and correlational analyses with qualitative content analysis.A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlational study was conducted, complemented by qualitative content analysis. Data were collected through an online questionnaire ad-ministered to 119 professors from a Portuguese higher education institution in the Alto Alentejo region. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests, and open-ended responses were examined using thematic content analysis. Results: The findings reveal widespread use of AI tools among professors, mainly for pedagogical content creation and document summarization. The most frequently identified ethical challenges were authorship and plagiarism, academic integrity, misinformation, and lack of regulation. Younger and female professors reported higher levels of self-reported ethical awareness indicatorshigher ethical awareness, while no significant association was found between frequency of AI use and ethical sensitivity. Qualitative analysis highlighted concerns related to critical thinking, assessment fairness, and the preservation of human-centered pedagogy. Conclusions: This study examines higher education professors' ethical awareness regarding the use of artificial intelligence, focusing on perceived ethical challenges, knowledge of ethical principles, and experiences with ethical dilemmas.The study underscores the need for targeted teacher training, clear institutional guidelines, and ethical governance frameworksto support trans-parent and responsible AI use in higher education, ensuring academic integrity and pedagogical quality.
Keywords: academic integrity, artificial intelligence, Ethics, Generative AI, higher education, Teaching and Learning
Received: 03 Jan 2026; Accepted: 06 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Oliveira, Coelho, Póvoa, Morgado and Guerra. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ana Oliveira
Bruno Gonçalo Morgado
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