Generative AI is rapidly transforming higher education, yet existing research has concentrated on adoption, literacy, efficiency, and ethics, leaving faculty agency underexamined. This study explores how Palestinian faculty members negotiate AI-mediated teaching through authorship, pedagogical judgement, autonomy, and responsibility. Using a qualitative descriptive design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 faculty members from two Palestinian universities and analysed thematically. The findings show that generative AI supports teaching, academic writing, communication, and workload management while raising concerns about blurred authorship, dependency, and reduced reflection. Faculty agency was reconfigured through critical mediation: educators evaluated, adapted, and contextualised AI-generated outputs before use. Pedagogical judgement emerged as the mechanism through which educators maintained responsibility and control, while AI-enabled cognitive offloading became educationally responsible only when governed by Critical AI Literacy and situated professional judgement.

Title

Innovations in Education and Teaching International

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Publisher Country

United Kingdom

Indexing

Thomson Reuters

Impact Factor

6.2

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

--

Year

2026

Pages

1–18