Developing early career teachers’ professional digital competence: a systematic literature review

Early-career teachers face numerous challenges when using digital technologies in their educational practices. This systematic literature review explores how early-career teachers develop professional digital competence in practice and identifies some of the contributing factors for this development. Twenty-five publications were selected for inclusion in the review study after a careful search strategy and detailed screening conducted in three popular and relevant databases (Web of Science, Scopus and ERIC). The analysis of the reviewed publications revealed four overarching themes (actively developing professional digital competence, taking advantage of development opportunities, mentoring as a way of development, and professional digital competence interwoven with early-career teachers’ professional identity development). The analysis also revealed five factors (institutional culture, accessibility and availability of resources, governance and leadership, insufficient or lack of technical and pedagogical support and a heavy workload) contributing to early-career teachers’ professional digital competence development. The systematic review offers conclusions and research implications.