Reading With, Not Through, AI: A Human-Centered Framework for Multimodal Literature Education

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37497/rev.artif.intell.educ.v7ii.1377

Keywords:

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI), Generative AI, Multimodal AI, Literature education, AI literacy, Close reading , Student agency, Visual hallucination

Abstract

Background: Multimodal generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) can process written language, images, typography, layout, and interface-like elements, creating opportunities for literature education but also new epistemic risks. Vision-capable models may combine accurate recognition, plausible inference, and invented visual detail in a single fluent interpretation. The central challenge is not access to multimodal information, but disciplined separation of observation, inference, interpretation, and human judgment.

Objective: This perspective paper develops Multimodal Evidence-Bounded Interpretation (MEBI), a human-centered framework designed to preserve close reading, interpretive plurality, evidential accountability, and student authorship when multimodal GenAI is used with literary texts.

Methods: The study uses an evidence-informed conceptual synthesis and a worked multimodal case. Recent peer-reviewed research on GenAI-supported learning, student agency, literary analysis, multimodal AI, and visual hallucination is integrated with established scholarship on multimodality and graphic narrative and with human-centered AI guidance. The framework is demonstrated through selected scan locations from Nora Dåsnes’s Czech graphic narrative Na kočičí svědomí (2024).

Results: MEBI comprises five design propositions—human-first encounter, modal traceability, observation–inference separation, preserved interpretive plurality, and human adjudication and authorship—and a five-phase sequence: Encounter, Describe, Hypothesize, Audit, and Adjudicate & Author. Five evidence tags track verbal, image, sequential-spatial, typographic-graphic, and digital-interface evidence. A worked case, classroom sequence, evidence ledger, and assessment heuristic operationalize the framework.

Conclusion: MEBI positions AI as a generator of descriptions, hypotheses, counter-readings, and questions rather than as interpretive authority. It offers a researchable design for multimodal literature education while requiring empirical validation across genres, languages, age groups, and educational contexts.

Author Biography

Milan Mašát, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic

Milan Mašát, Ph.D., MBA, Ed.D., is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Czech Language and Literature, Faculty of Education, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic. His research focuses on literature education, children’s and young adult literature, multimodal and visual narratives, and the educational representation of the Shoah/Holocaust. His current work also addresses the responsible integration of generative artificial intelligence into literature education.

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Published

2026-08-13

How to Cite

Mašát, M. (2026). Reading With, Not Through, AI: A Human-Centered Framework for Multimodal Literature Education. Review of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 7(i), e01377. https://doi.org/10.37497/rev.artif.intell.educ.v7ii.1377

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Section

Generative AI & Academic Writing