The Internet has become an integral part of our daily life. Today, more than 2/3 of all people worldwide use cell phones, and more than half of the world's population is connected to high-speed Internet. In 2020, more than a third of global GDP will be generated by the digital economy and the pace of change is growing. The boundaries between the real and the virtual world are rapidly blurring. In the digital space, a person is no longer limited in actions by the territory of his city, village and even state. In Kazakhstan, the digitalization of school education is one of the leading trends in the process of its reform. The vision of the schools of the future is most often associated with the gradual transition of all subjects to the cloud-based learning system. We are talking about online textbooks and virtual labs, open educational content, a flexible and individual approach to each student. Students will be able to do homework together online. School libraries are being transformed into information and computer centers. It is planned that the entire educational process will be tied to the ID of each student, which will allow to give marks and form ratings.

The purpose of this qualitative case-study is to explore teachers’ perceptions towards Digital Citizenship Education at one public school and analyze the effectiveness of Digital Citizenship Education implementation in the learning process.

The following Research questions are addressed: Primarily, what are NIS Kokshetau teachers’ perceptions toward “Digital Citizenship Education?”  Additional sub-questions include, How do classroom teachers at NIS Kokshetau define Digital Citizenship? What are examples of teachers at NIS Kokshetau implementing “Digital Citizenship Education”? What are the challenges of teachers delivering lessons within the framework of “Digital Citizenship Education”?

Theoretical framework for the present study is described by a social constructivist paradigm of research. Glesne (2006) suggests “this paradigm maintains that human beings construct their perceptions of the world.” (p. 6). In social constructivism the goal of the research is to rely as much as possible on participants’ views of the situation being studied, because people are perceived as having their own understanding and meaning making of their worlds, experiences, and social interactions. The questions become broad and general so that the participants can construct the meaning of a situation (Creswell, 2002,p.8)

To explore teachers’ perceptions towards digital citizenship education, this study used a qualitative case study design with semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and non-participant lesson observation. The use of these 3 methods of data collection will provide the study with detailed and accurate information and allow to see the case from different views. One-on-one interviews provided the opportunity to gather in-depth information on how teachers and students feel about their level of digital awareness and their understandings of digital citizenship education. Document Analysis. About 11-12 subjects such as Geography, History, Kazakh language, Physics, Maths, English and other subjects are included in the curriculum. The researcher analyzed the curriculum for each subject, specifically looking for tenets of digital citizenship education. Document analysis was used as one method of data collection and analysis. Observation is the process of gathering open-ended, firsthand information by observing people and places at a research site (Creswell, 2014). Creswell (2014) says that “Non-participant classroom observation will be used. A non-participant observer is an observer who visits a site and records notes without becoming involved in the activities of participants” (p.237). Lessons of teachers who participated in the interview were observed. Overall, 127 participants took part in our study. Purposeful sampling was used to select the research participants.

This study demonstrated that teachers try to implement digital resources in the classroom. However, lack of teaching experience in using digital resources in the classroom prevents them from effective teaching. Next, the study showed students’ non-involvement or non-participation in the learning process. Simplification of the concept does not take into account the diversity of digital citizenship education styles and there was some resistance from the teachers who considered traditional style of teaching as a better way of education that led to conflict of formal and informal practice Following these findings teachers should have more professional development trainings to improve their teaching practice. It worth modifying the lesson planning and the selection of digital resources to encourage students’ participation during the lesson. To solve the problem of formal and informal practice it worth developing skills and abilities of digital citizenship, such as digital ethics, digital security, digital efficiency, digital democracy.

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