Artificial Intelligence Literacy and Its Implications for Science Teacher Education in Nigeria: A Futures-Oriented Empirical Study

This study examined artificial intelligence literacy among Nigerian science teacher educators and its implications for futures-oriented science teacher education. As AI increasingly permeates scientific research, healthcare, agriculture, and industry, science teachers must be equipped to teach with and about AI; yet the AI literacy baseline and readiness of Nigerian science teacher educators remains undocumented. A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design was employed. In the qualitative phase, 24 science teacher educators from universities and colleges of education across South West, North Central, and South South Nigeria participated in in-depth interviews exploring AI knowledge, attitude, and perceived relevance to science education. Informed by these findings, a validated AI Literacy for Science Education scale was developed and administered to 300 science teacher educators in the quantitative phase. Exploratory Factor Analysis, regression analysis, and descriptive statistics were used. Results revealed low to moderate AI literacy levels, with significant variability by institution type and geopolitical zone. Perceived relevance was moderate but did not translate into instructional integration. Barriers included inadequate AI infrastructure, absence of AI content in current teacher education curricula, and low institutional support for technology innovation. An original AI-Integrated Science Teacher Education Framework for Nigeria is proposed. Keywords: artificial intelligence literacy, science teacher education, futures orientation, Nigeria, curriculum innovation.