What Are the Factors Impacting the Digital Literacy of Chinese Rural Teachers?

• In Event: Exploring Digital Literacy and Media Use in Education

Proposal

INTRODUCTION
With the rapid development of digital technology, educational digital transformation has become an important theme in education policies, research, and practices worldwide. Due to teachers' crucial role in this transformation, major developed countries and international organizations have formulated standards for teachers' digital literacy. For example, the European Union released DigCompEdu in 2017 (Redecker, C. 2017) and UNESCO published the ICT Competency Framework for Teacher (3rd Edition) in 2020. Chinese government accordingly issued its Teacher Digital Literacy Standard in 2022 to guide and promote the development of digital literacy among Chinese teachers (Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, 2022).

Do teachers at the basic education level possess these digital literacy standards? What factors affect their level of digital literacy? Many scholars have conducted research on these topics (Althubyani, 2024; Guizado, 2023; Hurtado-Mazeyra, 2022; Rasyid, 2023). Among them, some scholars have started to focus on the digital literacy levels and influencing factors of rural teachers from the perspective of digital inclusion or digital divide. For example, Wang (2019) explored the use of digital educational resources by rural teachers in China and discussed the factors affecting their use; Wu (2021) investigated the ability of rural school teachers in China to use digital resources and discussed the impact of ICT training on their use from both teacher and school levels; Guillén-Gámez (2022) measured the digital communication skills of rural teachers with the educational community. However, there are no studies yet in the literature that conducted an in-depth investigation into the digital literacy status of Chinese rural teachers against the new Teacher Digital Literacy Standards.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Based on the analysis of eight prominent information technology acceptance models, Venkatesh et al. (2003) proposed the UTAUT model to describe technology adoption. It has been widely used in various fields (Williams, 2012). This model introduces four core variables that influence the acceptance and use of information technology: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. Additionally, it suggests four moderating variables: gender, age, experience, and voluntariness of use (Venkatesh, 2003). In 2012, Venkatesh et al. expanded the model to explain consumer behavior in accepting and using new technologies more comprehensively. They added three core variables to the original UTAUT model: hedonic motivation, price value, and habit, while removing the moderating variable of voluntariness (Venkatesh, 2012). Since the digital literacy of rural teachers pertains more to the behavior patterns of using digital technology within an organization, the UTAUT model is more applicable in this study than UTAUT2. As this study focuses on how performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions affect the digital literacy of rural teachers and it does not take into account the moderating effects of gender, age, experience, and voluntariness.

Venkatesh et al. delved into the impact of the four core variables together with the four moderating variables on individuals' acceptance and use of technology, explaining up to 70% of intention and behavior differences. However, he did not conduct an in-depth study of how the four core variables interact with each other. This is the breakthrough that our study aims to achieve. In other words, our study further explores how the four variables interact with each other to affect the digital literacy of rural teachers (Figure 2).

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Q1: Are there significant differences in digital literacy between Chinese urban and rural teachers?
Q2: How do relevant factors impact digital literacy of Chinese rural teachers?

METHOD
This study uses a survey design to explore whether there are significant differences in the digital literacy between Chinese urban and rural teachers and how relevant factors affect the digital literacy of rural teachers. The design of the questionnaire was guided by the Chinese digital literacy standard and the UTAUT model with consultation from the European Union's self-assessment scale development method (Ghomi, 2019). In addition to the demographic variables such as gender, age, teaching experience, and urban-rural status, the questionnaire includes two main parts: teachers' digital literacy and the influencing factors. The four core variable (performance expectations, effort expectations, social impact, and convenience conditions) and their sub-scales were developed based on the work of Wang (2019), Powers (2020), Venkatesh (2003), and others. All questions use a 5-point Likert scale. The preliminary questionnaires were subject to two rounds of expert consultations with selected experts from the education field (such as researchers and schoolteachers) via email or WeChat to ensure the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. To verify the effectiveness of the scale, confirmatory factor analysis will be used for testing.

The survey is expected to be conducted from the mid September to the end of November. We will adopt a sampling method that is proportional to probability and scale in a multi-stage cluster sampling design, using both online and paper questionnaires. Data collection will take place in the urban and rural schools in a southwestern province in China. The questionnaire is first sent to the research and teaching staff, who then distributed it to the schools under their jurisdiction, which in turn distributed it to the teachers for completion.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
After data collection is completed, research results will be analyzed and reported around two research questions. From now until the meeting time, the research team should have sufficient time to complete data collection and analysis. Findings will be reported at the conference.

CONTRIBUTIONS
The study aims to contribute in three aspects: first, assessing the digital literacy levels of Chinese rural teachers based on the standards for teacher digital literacy released by the Ministry of Education of China; second, conducting empirical research using the four key variables in the UTAUT model as important factors affecting the digital literacy of rural teachers; and third, exploring how these four variables interact when influencing the digital literacy of rural teachers, thereby enriching the UTAUT model.

Authors

• Liang Chen

• George Zhou, University of Windsor