Pre-service teachers’ digital literacy practices: exploring contingency in identity and digital literacy in and out of educational contexts
Abstract
This paper highlights the significance of teacher identity to debates about the disconnect between digital literacies within and beyond school by exploring pre-service teachers’ perspectives on digital literacy practices in their personal and professional lives. It uses aspects of Giddens’ work on self-identity to frame an analysis that suggests firstly that individuals engage in digital literacies in ways that reflect and uphold context-specific identities, and secondly that the drive to sustain a consistent ‘narrative of self’ may be significant to individuals’ engagement with new technologies. This in turn highlights the contingency of digital experience, which may be framed by a fluctuating sense of appropriateness, legitimacy and risk. This makes a new contribution to understanding why skills, orientations and attitudes associated with digital literacies do (or do not) survive the transition to educational contexts and is particularly relevant at a time when policy and research have suggested that current educational practice is outmoded. The paper argues that, if progress is to be made in investigating and developing pedagogies that capitalise on the potential of new technologies, then greater consideration needs to be given to how teachers experience digital literacy practices across different domains of their lives.
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Digital literacy and technological capabilities are associated with teachers' professional development and PI.
“Moreover, previous studies on technology-related competence have shown that digital literacy and technological capabilities are associated with teachers’ professional development and PI (Burnett, 2011; Su, 2023; Wang and Ye, 2025).”
From AI teaching innovation behavior among college teachers: a structural equation modeling analysis based on the AI-TPACK framework, teaching self-efficacy, professional identity, and AI literacy (2026) · cites this paper as Burnett, 2011
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Bai, X., & Hsieh, T.-S. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1834827
“Moreover, previous studies on technology-related competence have shown that digital literacy and technological capabilities are associated with teachers’ professional development and PI (Burnett, 2011; Su, 2023; Wang and Ye, 2025).”
- Authors
- Burnett, C.
- Affiliations
- Sheffield Hallam University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Burnett, Cathy
- ORCID
- Burnett, Cathy
- Venue
- Language and Education
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2011-09
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 433-449
- ISSN
- 0950-0782 (ISSN-L)
- 1747-7581
- OpenAlex
- W1987985810
- Cited by
- 84
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 7.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Language and Education (publishedVersion)
- SHURA (Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive) (Sheffield Hallam University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Digital literacy in education
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Literacy, Media, and Education
- Social Sciences › Education › Teacher Education and Leadership Studies
- Keywords
- digital literacy, pre-service teachers, teacher identity, self-identity, Anthony Giddens, transition to teaching, educational technology
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