Emergency remote teaching, resulting from the COVID-19 lockdown, forced the academic use of digital technologies in university education (Sánchez-Tarazaga et al., 2023). This unprecedented educational scenario allowed academics worldwide to use these tools to support the training of university students. Those academics who experienced this process implicitly developed various digital competencies in their students and themselves. The European Economic Community has developed two conceptual frameworks that define and describe digital competencies. One is the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp), focused on the knowledge of digital technologies that 21st-century citizens should possess (Carretero et al., 2017), and the other is called the Digital Competence Framework for Educators, aimed at understanding how digital technologies are integrated into educational contexts (Redecker, 2017).

In the case of initial teacher training, digital competencies can be implemented and promoted for multiple purposes (Cerda et al., 2022). One of these purposes is academic use, which can include actions aimed at supporting student learning through digital resources. This can be promoted explicitly or implicitly through various activities that a teacher carries out in their courses. This academic use is influenced by conditions that, when present, act as facilitators, while their absence acts as barriers (Zhao et al., 2002).

Considering the above, the identifiable conditions can be organized into three broad areas. First, the context, referring to infrastructure, external or university-specific educational policies, along with the digital resources available to support teaching. Second, the distinctive characteristics of the subjects (professors) who integrate digital technologies into their classes; and third, the process, focused on understanding how digital technologies are specifically used in teaching. Despite the relevance of the topic, the analysis of this phenomenon remains scarcely addressed. While the literature is extensive in describing the development of digital competencies in university academics (Saltos-Rivas et al., 2023), there is little research focuses on understanding the factors involved in the process and how they relate to each other.

Based on the aforementioned background, this research sought to answer two research questions: What conditions, associated with the context, subject, and process, promote or facilitate the use of digital technologies to support teaching? What conditions act as connectors between the three areas? These questions are relevant due to the complexity of the analysed phenomenon, which can have wide variability due to the diverse characteristics of universities, initial teacher training programs, and the academics themselves who teach in these programs.

This study constitutes the first step of a broader research project. At a macro level, it aims to analyse processes related to the design and implementation of educational practices based on digital technologies. The specific population consists of academics involved in initial teacher training, who promote the development of digital competencies that can be used for academic purposes. To achieve this goal, the study is based on the previously mentioned digital competency frameworks has been established, along with direct collaboration with a team of Spanish researchers, to leverage the research experience in the area being developed in Europe. It is expected that this study will provide insights to understand how to effectively integrate digital technologies to support teaching in initial teacher training.

This research used the principles and procedures associated with constructivist grounded theory developed by Charmaz (2014). This qualitative tradition was employed because it allows for the generation of theories that seek to explain the characteristics of a particular object of study, integrating the perspective of the participants with that of the researchers, while also considering the sociocultural context in which the phenomenon occurs (Córdoba-Mercado et al., 2025). A total of 25 academics from Chile and Spain participated in this research. Of this number, 14 belonged to three Chilean universities and 11 to five Spanish universities. Participants were selected based on the following inclusion criteria: (i) Being a faculty member in a teacher training program; (ii) Integrating digital technologies into teaching; (iii) Having developed emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 lockdown. The latter criterion aimed to explore the potential impact that the forced context of emergency remote teaching may have had on the integration of digital technologies in university teaching. Data collection was implemented using an interview guide structured around three areas. Before data collection, participants read and signed an informed consent form approved by an ethics committee. Interviews were conducted both in person and remotely. The audio information collected was transcribed into text using an artificial intelligence system (Microsoft), which was subsequently verified by two researchers, emphasizing the accuracy of content transcription and sentence punctuation. Data analysis considered initial coding, focused coding, and the use of constant comparison method; which are key elements of constructivist grounded theory. Data analysis was conducted by three researchers using the MaxQDA program. The generation of codes and categories was agreed upon by the research team based on the coded narrative text segments. To ensure greater consistency in coding, rules of analysis were created for each code, including the definition of the code, as well as indications of when to use it and when not to use it. To analyse potential biases in the coding process, the generated categories and codes were reviewed using ChatGPT (paid version) (Theelen et al., 2024). The use of open and focused coding facilitated the understanding of the studied phenomenon.

In the context, the category "Explicit presence of digital technologies" groups the conditions: integrating digital technology courses; considering technologies in the graduate profile; analysing convergence between the training program and the use of technologies. The second category, "Institutional policies", brings together the conditions: leveraging technological infrastructure; providing technical support; strengthening digital competencies; monitoring teaching. The third category "Influence of the external context" identifies the conditions: meeting accreditation requirements; considering initial teacher training standards; connecting with young users. In the subject, the category "Teacher attributes" groups the conditions: applying academics digital capital; exploring instructional needs; embracing the adoption of technologies; managing the time required for technology adoption. The category "Mastery of digital technologies" contains the conditions: staying up to date; identifying reliable sources of information; ensuring coherence in digital teaching practices. In the process, the category "Teacher-centered practices" groups conditions such as: reinforcing traditional strategies with technologies; integrating technologies while maintaining instructional control; using resources transferable to the classroom; employing virtual environments in a non-interactive way; Addressing artificial intelligence literacy levels. The category "Collaborative construction of practices with students" consider conditions such as: promoting instances of autonomous learning; adopting emergency remote teaching practices; using virtual environments interactively; accepting technologies proposed by students. Additionally, there are articulating conditions between areas. “Context” and “subject” are linked if there are digital competency training programs and a pro-technology vision from the teacher training program's director. The conditions between “process” and “context” consider support for the integration of digital technologies and the compatibility of courses with available technology. Between “subject” and “process”, the conditions include self-training practices and a pedagogical vision that converges between digital resources and content. These conditions do not differ between Chilean and Spanish educators, highlighting the universal nature of the challenges and opportunities related to digital technology integration in initial teacher training.

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