Empowering Teacher Professionalization with Digital Competences

Timeline for submission:
Abstracts due 31 January 2024

Dear Colleagues,

We are at the crossroads of an educational transformation where digital competence is not just an asset but a necessity. Recognizing the urgent need to equip (prospective) teachers with digital competence, we are planning to curate this Special Issue, titled "Empowering Teacher Professionalization with Digital Competence —An International Perspective". Our goal is to compile research that highlights how teacher education programs across the globe are fostering basic and professional digital competences (Rubach and Lazarides, 2023). We seek contributions that resonate with the concept of digital competence as a combination of knowledge, motivational beliefs and situation-specific skills that impact performance (Blömeke and Kaiser, 2017).

The integration of digital competence in teacher professionalization in terms of teacher education and professional development is as crucial as knowledge on how to effectively shape learning environments and which didactic strategies are needed to foster basic and professional digital competences (Tondeur et al., 2017). This Special Issue will serve as a platform for international dialogue and the sharing of best practices. We invite empirical studies that provide rich insights into how to provide learning opportunities and design learning environments to cultivate digital competencies among (prospective) teachers. We seek empirical contributions that propose strategies at various levels—from individual seminars and lectures to innovative learning settings—or outline the steps that departments, schools and university boards, including deans of education and vice provosts for teaching and learning, can undertake to ensure the successful development and promotion of digital competence within teacher education.

We particularly encourage work that yields practical implication based on empirical evidence, and offers pathways for the ongoing enhancement of the professional development of teachers or teacher education programs.

Contributions may address, but are not limited to:

• Strategies for integrating digital competence into teacher education curricula and professional developmental programs;
• Comparative analysis of digital competence of (prospective) teachers, teacher educators and initiatives within teacher professionalization across countries;
• Evaluative pre–post-design studies on innovative pedagogical approaches for advancing digital competence in teacher training.

We welcome qualitative and quantitative empirical research, especially pre–post-design studies, and do not focus on instrument development and theoretical work. Submissions should critically examine approaches and reflect on the challenges, as well as the successes within teacher professionalization and teacher education.

We anticipate your submissions with great interest.

Prof. Dr. Charlott Rubach
Prof. Dr. Rebecca Lazarides
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• digital competence
• digital literacy
• interventions
• teacher education
• teacher training
• pedagogical approaches
• pre–post design
• longitudinal research
• qualitative research
• quantitative research