Native, addict, innovator: young teachers' digital competence in the post-COVID-19 instructional era

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to posing challenges, has also created opportunities for greater digital integration than ever. However, the scale and efficacy of digital integration are contingent on the digital competence (DC) of teachers. In the same way, how well teachers learn and teach online may depend on how willing they are to try new ways of digitizing learning or being innovative. This study aimed to ascertain if teachers' digital nativeness, digital addiction and innovative work behavior had an impact on their DC.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a quantitative research method, whereby data were collected from 276 schools, colleges and university teachers. The researchers employed structural equation modeling (SEM) using SmartPLS to analyze the data.FindingsThe results illuminate the literature regarding DC and the predictive capability of teachers' digital nativeness, digital addiction and innovative work behavior, which can contribute to paving the way for digitizing teaching and learning in the post-COVID-19 era.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has significant implications for meaningful learner engagement by explaining the importance of teachers' digital competencies and how they could be approached conceptually to better understand the factors associated with teachers' DC. The differences in DC between digital natives and digital emigrants remain one of the limitations that future research may address.Practical implicationsThe results have policy level and practical implications for organizations to consider the value of young teachers in the integration of digital resources. It is also critical to encourage teachers' innovative behavior in the digitization of teaching by creating a supportive organizational environment.Originality/valueThe study remains valuable in the post-COVID-19 era, where educational institutes are revisiting the prospect of online learning as a parallel to in-person teaching. The results remain innovative and genuine and have not been explored in previous research, in particular in the post-COVID-19 era. The involvement of teachers from schools, colleges and universities makes the results more general, which all of them can equally benefit from.