We argue that Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) represents more than a new educational tool; it constitutes a cultural and epistemological shift that fundamentally alters the context of teaching and learning. Our central thesis is that teacher educationTeacher education globally must prepare educators not merely to use GenAI effectively, but to critically engage with its systemic impacts across technological, political, economic, ethical, cognitive, environmental, and social dimensions. Our analysis examines GenAI’s distinctive attributes, or its protean, opaque, unstable, generative, and social qualities, which differentiate it from previous technologies and create unprecedented opportunities and challenges. While GenAI offers transformative potential through personalized learning, creative collaboration, and adaptive instruction, it also raises profound concerns about bias and inequity, epistemic trust, corporate influence, and the erosion of human agency. Drawing on historical patterns of educational technologyEducational technology adoption, we demonstrate how technologies transform education not through direct classroom applications but by reshaping the cultural contexts in which learning occurs, altering both the content and processes of teaching and learning. We propose a framework with four core areas for teacher education Teacher educationreform: building foundational AI literacyAI literacy, cultivating critical awarenessCritical awareness and ethical judgment, safeguarding student wellbeing and rights, and preparing students for an AI-transformed society. This framework emphasizes human wisdom, critical discernment, and values-driven integration over technological determinism, positioning educators worldwide as active shapers rather than passive recipients of AI-mediated educational futures.