Peace by Empowering Teachers: Typologies of Teachers’ ICT-related Professionalization in International Comparison

• In Event: Teaching and Learning of STEM and ICT in the Digital Age: Insights from International Assessments

Proposal

Theoretical Framework
Peace in the digital age depends on individuals’ ability to critically navigate digital environments. In times of increasing misinformation, digital manipulation and social polarization, fostering digital resilience is essential to manifest peaceful, democratic and cohesive societies. A key element in this process is Computer and Information Literacy (CIL; Fraillon, 2025), which enables individuals to critically access, evaluate and use digital information. CIL strengthens informed civic participation, supports resistance to digital manipulation and enhances social cohesion – core conditions for sustainable peace and democratic resilience (Reuter et al., 2024; Sánchez-Castillo, 2024).
In this context, schools play a vital role. As societies become more digitalized, education systems need to ensure that young people are equipped with the skills to use digital technologies confidently, critically and responsibly to participate in social, political and professional life (Vuorikari et al., 2022; Hübner et al., 2023).
Teachers are key agents in fostering CIL among students, as they shape how digital technologies are integrated into teaching and learning processes (Runge et al., 2023; Davis, Eickelmann & Zaka, 2013). Teachers, who are confident and pedagogically skilled in using information and communication technology (ICT), are essential to high-quality digital education (OECD, 2022). At the same time, ongoing ICT-related professional development is an integral part of teachers’ lifelong learning (Boeskens et al., 2020), contributing to school quality and innovation.
In a theoretical framework shaping the interrelation of antecedent and process factors in achieving student CIL, teachers’ participation in ICT-related professional development is located at the school and classroom level of the antecedents (Fraillon & Rožman, 2024). Empirical research mainly described how frequently teachers participate in ICT-related professional learning activities such as the usage of ICT in class or the reflection of information (Fraillon et al., 2020). However, analyses of teacher typologies regarding their ICT-related professional development remain rare, despite indications – e.g. from Annemann et al. (2024) for Germany and the USA – that such participation is positively related to the emphasis teachers place on students’ CIL development. Only few studies (e.g. Drossel & Eickelmann, 2017) have explored patterns of diversity in teachers’ participation in ICT-related professionalization.

Country Selection and Research Question
Against the background of differing technological, educational, and cultural contexts – as well as varying average levels of CIL across countries (Fraillon, 2025) – this study conducts a comparative analysis of Germany, the United States and Taiwan. Building on the current state of research on teachers' participation in professional learning activities, it addresses the following research questions:
To what extent can typologies of teachers’ participation in ICT-related professional learning activities be identified in Germany, the United States and Taiwan?
To what extent do the identified types of teacher professionalization differ between Germany, the United States and Taiwan?

Method
To address the outlined research questions, secondary analyses utilizing data from the International Computer and Information Literacy Study 2023 (ICILS 2023) were conducted. Analyses are based on nationally representative drawn teacher samples from the United States (n = 898), Germany (n = 2,302) and Taiwan (n = 2,233) (Fraillon, 2025). A Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was conducted using MPlus 8, incorporating six indicators regarding ICT-related professional learning activities to identify distinct typologies of teacher professionalization. The selection of the optimal class solution was guided by model fit indices such as the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) (Eshima, 2022), while sampling weights were applied to account for potential sampling bias (Tieck, 2025).

Findings
The analysis identified four teacher professionalization profiles in the United States, Germany and Taiwan. Due to the strong cross-national similarities among three of the four identified profiles, identical labels were used for them across countries. While the USA and Taiwan share a forth profile with the identical label, the fourth profile from Germany differs from the aforementioned countries.
The Enthusiastic Professionalizers (Germany: 19.4%; USA: 37.2%; Taiwan: 50.9%) showed high engagement across all different aspects of ICT-related professionalization. In contrast, the Minimal Professionalizers (Germany: 35.9%; USA: 19.5%; Taiwan: 11.3%) reported limited engagement concerning ICT-related professionalization. The ICT Usage-Orientated Professionalizers (Germany: 40.6%; USA: 39.1%; Taiwan: 27.4%) focused on certain professional learning activities, mainly targeting the integrating of ICT into teaching and learning processes and the use of subject-specific digital teaching and learning resources.
Balanced Professionalizers (USA: 4.1%; Taiwan: 10.4%) targeted a broad variety of ICT-related professionalization activities with emphasis on rather student-related and reflective skills like supporting students’ capabilities to identify deceptive internet practices (e.g. fake news, etc.) and students’ capabilities to evaluate the reliability of internet-based information sources. Additionally, the Balanced Professionalizers emphasised professional learning activities addressing the use of subject-specific digital teaching and learning resource.
Germany showed an individual fourth profile of ICT-related teacher professionalization: The Informative-reflective Professionalizers (4.1%). Regarding this group, teachers predominantly focused student-related and reflective skills like supporting students’ capabilities to identify deceptive internet practices (e.g. fake news, etc.) and students’ capabilities to evaluate the reliability of internet-based sources.
The identified typologies differ notably across the countries investigated regarding prevalence and profile composition. While four ICT-related teacher professionalization profiles – three of them common – emerged across the USA, Germany and Taiwan, their relative frequencies varied. For example, the Enthusiastic Professionalizers were most prevalent in Taiwan and less in Germany, whereas the ICT Usage-Orientated Professionalizers were most common in the USA and Germany. Additionally, Germany exhibited a unique fourth profile absent in Taiwan and the USA. For all counties, groups with emphasis on rather student-related and reflective skills appeared smallest in each typology. These findings suggest that national educational cultures and policy contexts shape how teachers prioritize aspects of ICT-related professional development.

Conclusion
This study advances empirical research by identifying and comparing ICT-related teacher professionalization profiles across three countries. The findings offer key implications for teacher education and policy. Recognizing the diversity of certain patterns in teacher professionalization can inform more tailored professional development. Therefore, considering teachers as key agents for a successful implementation of digital education in schools (Reinius et al., 2022) and enabling students to navigate digital environments responsibly, educational systems can help lay the foundation for more peaceful, democratic and informed societies in a rapidly changing world.

Authors

• Marius Domke, Paderborn University

• Jan Niemann, Paderborn University

• Birgit Eickelmann