TEACHER PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Abstract

he study investigated “Teacher Professional Identity in the Digital Age: Challenges and Opportunities.” The general aim was to examine how digital innovations are reshaping teachers’ self-conception, roles, and pedagogical practices in the 21st century. Four research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population consisted of all public and private secondary school teachers in Enugu State, Nigeria. A stratified random sample of 200 teachers was selected. The instrument used was a structured questionnaire titled "Teacher Professional Identity Digital Questionnaire" (TPIDQ), validated by experts in Educational Psychology and Measurement. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha, yielding a reliability coefficient of 0.86. Data were collected through trained research assistants and analyzed using mean scores, standard deviation, and independent samples t-tests. Findings revealed that teachers’ digital identities are influenced significantly by access to digital infrastructure, institutional support, and their perceived competence with digital technologies. Many teachers struggle with aligning their traditional roles with evolving digital expectations. Hypothesis testing showed significant differences in perceptions between urban and rural teachers (p < .05). The findings imply that policy frameworks should focus on providing equal digital access and professional development opportunities. It was recommended that teacher training curricula be updated to reflect digital pedagogical competencies, and mentoring systems be implemented for identity reconstruction. A major limitation was the exclusion of student perspectives on teacher identity transformation. Further studies could investigate teacher identity using longitudinal or mixed-method designs.