Conference Agenda

In the context of accelerating digital transformation, digital competence has become a core requirement for higher education teachers, particularly for teacher educators responsible for preparing future teachers. European research has provided conceptual foundations for influential frameworks addressing teachers’ digital competence, such as TPACK and DigCompEdu. More recently, the HeDiCom framework has been proposed to capture the specific digital competence requirements of higher education teachers (Tondeur et al., 2023). Despite their widespread use in European contexts, qualitative evidence remains limited regarding how these conceptualisations are enacted in professional practice beyond Europe, particularly within policy-driven higher education systems. This study addresses this gap by adopting HeDiCom as an analytical lens to examine how teacher educators enact digital competence as professional practice in Vietnamese higher education. Digital competence is conceptualised not as a static set of individual skills but as a situated professional practice enacted through pedagogical judgement, decision-making, and action (Krumsvik, 2014; Uerz et al., 2018; Tondeur et al., 2023). This perspective is complemented by professional agency, defined as teacher educators’ capacity to enact HeDiCom competencies while navigating institutional expectations, policy demands, and material conditions.

The study builds on preliminary survey evidence indicating recurring challenges related to infrastructure, workload, and pedagogical integration among teacher educators across Vietnamese universities. However, these findings did not elucidate how teacher educators experience, interpret, and respond to such conditions in everyday practice. Accordingly, a qualitative, multi-site design centred on in-depth interviews was employed. Empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews with fifteen teacher educators (five per institution) from three major Vietnamese universities of teacher education: Hanoi National University of Education, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, and the University of Danang – University of Science and Education. These institutions were selected as analytically contrasting sites within a shared national policy framework for digital transformation, rather than for regional comparison. Participants were purposively selected to capture diversity in academic qualifications, length of professional service, teaching experience, and engagement with digital teaching. Interview questions were aligned with the four HeDiCom domains—teaching practice, empowering students for a digital society, teachers’ digital literacy, and teachers’ professional development—alongside prompts on professional agency and institutional conditions. Data were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2012), combining deductive coding informed by HeDiCom with inductive coding to identify emergent patterns of agency and constraint.

The findings indicate that teacher educators demonstrate awareness of the pedagogical potential of digital technologies and a sense of professional responsibility for developing students’ digital competence. However, the enactment of HeDiCom competencies is shaped by institutional conditions, including intensified workloads, limited time for professional learning, fragmented digital infrastructure, and ambiguous organisational expectations regarding digital innovation. Under these conditions, professional agency is frequently expressed in adaptive or compliance-oriented forms, with teacher educators selectively integrating digital technologies at a manageable level rather than engaging in more transformative practice. Digital competence thus emerges not as an individual skills deficit but as a negotiated professional practice embedded in everyday academic work.

By applying a European digital competence framework to a non-European higher education context, the study advances a practice-oriented understanding of digital competence and strengthens dialogue between European digital competence research and global higher education contexts. The findings also contribute to methodological discussions by demonstrating how a multi-site qualitative design can capture the interplay between policy, institutional conditions, and professional agency.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has brought in irreversible changes in learning and teaching processes, prompting a re-evaluation of teacher education globally. While this technological advancement is also celebrated for its potential to innovate teacher education, effective integration requires addressing the heterogeneity of the teaching workforce, which shapes how AI is adopted. Such a gap is significant for induction-phase teachers, who occupy a uniquely precarious position: they are expected to act as primary agents in translating AI-related policy ambitions into classroom practice due to their assumed technical familiarity, while simultaneously negotiating the ongoing formation and transforming their professional identity. As Tondeur et al. (2017) contend, perceived complexity and inadequate preparation present persistent hurdles among beginning teachers, and AI integration undoubtedly adds another layer of technological complexity to an already demanding transition.

Adaptive expertise, as the ability to flexibly respond to problems in novel, complex and changing contexts, is key to induction-phase teachers’ development (Rohwedder & Le Fevre, 2025). It helps teachers maintain consistent performance in new situations, such as flexibility, innovation, and creativity, which requires activities beyond the established routines (Cai et al., 2023; Ward et al., 2019). In the context of AI, where the technological landscape changes fundamentally, the complexity of classroom situations is in constant flux. In response, teachers with high adaptiveness will have knowledge that continuously grows and invent new procedures when necessary (Bohle-Carbonell et al., 2014; Hatano and Oura, 2003).

Previous studies using TAE as a framework in AI-integrated contexts have not yet paid due attention to how induction-phase teachers construct adaptive expertise. Furthermore, most AI research tends to depict teacher development as a linear and top-down process, thereby overlooking the heterogeneity of teachers’ backgrounds, experiences, and professional trajectories (Liu & Shang, 2025). This study addresses these gaps by conceptualising TE as a process that requires contextualised and individualised customisation to teachers’ diverse needs. To this end, the research adopts a qualitative case study approach, guided by the following three research questions:

(1) How do induction-phase teachers currently use AI in curriculum and schooling in China?

(2) What new competencies does AI integration into education require of induction-phase teachers?

(3) How can teacher training address the newly developing needs for induction-phase teachers?

Drawing on a multiple case study conducted in China, this chapter investigates induction-phase teachers’ experience of AI integration into teaching, factors shaping their practice, and these teachers’ developmental needs. Primarily using the interview data, triangulated with self-report questionnaires and stimulated recalls, the study finds that, while beginning teachers initially demonstrate a relatively cautious and pragmatic orientation towards AI adoption, their attitudes shift positively with increased exposure. Furthermore, the study identifies teacher autonomy, emotion regulation, pedagogical enactment, and deliberate practice as critical individual competencies contributing to teachers’ adaptive expertise. Additionally, collaborative and relational factors are essential for fostering required expertise. The chapter concludes with implications and recommendations for developing tech-enhanced language pedagogy and AI-focused teacher training in China and beyond.

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education also in primary schools is fundamentally reshaping the skills required for future participation in work and society. Forecasts indicate that AI-dominated environments will significantly increase the demand for socio-emotional skills. Global labour market analyses predict that skills such as empathy, teamwork, emotional intelligence, creativity, and self-management will become increasingly essential across all industries. In response, educational systems face an urgent need to identify effective, scalable, and developmentally appropriate approaches for fostering socio-emotional learning (SEL) especially from early childhood.
A growing body of researchers and policymakers underscores the importance of SEL for individual well-being, educational achievement, and long-term career readiness. Prominent frameworks, including the OECD Social and Emotional Skills Framework and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework, conceptualize SEL as a multidimensional construct encompassing self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision-making, emotional regulation, collaboration, and open-mindedness. Empirical studies further highlight that foundational socio-emotional competencies are especially critical during early primary school years.
Existing research has predominantly focused on school-based SEL programs implemented in pre-kindergarten to secondary education, including well-established interventions such as PATHS, MindUp, Open Circle, and Competent Kids, Caring Communities. While these programs demonstrate positive effects on children’s socio-emotional development, findings also emphasize the critical role of parental involvement in reinforcing SEL learning beyond the classroom. However, many parents report feeling overwhelmed by the abundance of learning materials and uncertain about which approaches are evidence-based, engaging, and appropriate for their children. This gap highlights the need for innovative SEL tools that are not only research-based, but also personlized and individual.
This study explores an innovative approach to socio-emotional learning by examining parents’ perceptions of hospitality-related children’s book stories adapted into interactive learning videos for children aged 5 to 7 years. Drawing on the service-oriented nature of the hospitality sector—where empathy, cooperation, respect, and care are central—the study positions hospitality-based narratives as a promising and underexplored context for fostering socio-emotional skills. The research’s objective is based on the following research questions:
RQ: How do parents evaluate and perceive innovative, interactive videos which have been developed based on research-based children book stories within an hospitality content environment, regarding its impact on learning socio-emotional skills of their 5-7 year old children.
The research is grounded in Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), which emphasizes the role of self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and personal goals in learning and development. Although traditionally applied to career development, SCCT is adapted in this study to examine how parents perceive their children’s socio-emotional learning.
A quantitative pre–post research design is employed using an online survey administered to parents both before and after viewing an interactive pilot video developed from the research-based picture book 'Dee and Flee in the Theme Park'. The questionnaire, consisting of ten items derived from SCCT constructs, measures parental perceptions of children’s socio-emotional self-efficacy, expected outcomes of SEL learning, and goal-oriented engagement. The study targets parents working in the hospitality and tourism sector as well as parents outside the sector, allowing for comparative analysis across professional contexts. Data collection is planned via Qualtrics, with a target sample size of 1,000 parents recruited through Prolific.
The findings are expected to provide insights into the perceived effectiveness of interactive, story-based learning tools for socio-emotional skill development and to assess the potential of hospitality-oriented narratives as a meaningful and scalable SEL approach. By integrating traditional picture books with immersive digital media, this research contributes to the advancement of innovative, parent-supported SEL interventions. The study offers implications for educators, parents, and policymakers seeking to prepare young learners for future careers and societal participation in an increasingly AI-driven world.