Between Screens and Schools: Navigating the Digital Identity of Future Teachers

Educational technology, while widespread, still fails to bring on a meaningful transformation of teaching and learning. Literature suggests it all goes down to the ways it is implemented by educators. Teacher digital identity poses as core construct to understand such ways. This study employes the Multiple Contexts Influencing Student Teachers’ Identities with Technology (MISTT) survey to explore how student-teachers conceptualize their digital identity across four key contexts of teacher life: personal, university, internship school, and school system. The respondents were 621 student-teachers in a European teacher preparation program. Results reveal significant a significant misalignment in digital identity across the four contexts - particularly between personal aspirations and institutional expectations. However, age, gender, year of enrollment and internship experience seemed to not factor in those differences. Beyond confirming the dynamic nature of teacher identity, fragmentation emerges as a concerning issue. This study contributes to understanding the challenges of developing a coherent digital identity capable of sustaining meaningful technology integration. Moreover, it introduces the MISTT as a valuable tool to monitor digital identity development in (preservice) teachers.