For educational institutions, it is important to ensure the sustainability of schools and teaching in a digitalised society, where students need to be able to use digital media confidently, in a responsible use and critical in order to take part in social, political and professional life (Fraillon, 2024; Fraillon & Rožman, 2024; Hübner et al., 2023; Vuorikari et al., 2022). For lifelong learning, digital competencies, hereafter referred to as ICT-related skills (information and communications technology) are recognized as one of the key competencies that relate to an individual's ability (Fraillon & Rožman, 2024; Vuorikari et al., 2022). In this context, teachers take on a central role in the quality, implementation and further development of school teaching and learning processes with regard to developing students’ ICT-related skills, which is considered to be of crucial importance (Runge et al., 2023; Davis, Eickelmann & Zaka, 2013).

From this perspective, the Digital Education Action Plan emphasises that ICT-related skills are  important for teachers' professional development representing as a key competence, but also essential for the quality of education provided to students (European Commission, 2022), which is also addressed by the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens 'DigComp 2.2' (Vuorikari et al., 2022).

Thus, teachers’ continuous professional development is not only a vital part of lifelong and professional learning (Boeskens et al., 2020), but also an integral part of school quality. From a theoretical perspective, aspects of teachers' ICT-related professionalisation like participation in professional learning activities or teacher collaboration using ICT can be located at the school-related process level in school quality models (Eickelmann et al., 2024). Furthermore, aforementioned processes are influenced by antecedent level variables like ICT-related aspects of teachers’ initial education. Consequently, teachers’ emphasis on developing students' ICT-based capabilities (instruction-related process level) and students’ learning success (output level) are directly linked to the aforementioned professionalisation activities (ibid.).

Recent findings from the International Computer and Information Literacy Study 2023 (ICILS 2023), conducted by the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement), include the perspective of the teachers and report the extent to which teachers develop students’ ICT-based capabilities. The results for European countries indicate that almost 66 percent (65.5%) of the teachers in Europe emphasise the promotion of students' ability to evaluate the credibility of digital information in ICILS 2023 (Drossel et al., 2024). Less than half (47.2%) of European teachers continue to report that they have promoted the ability to identify deceptive internet practices (e.g., scams, fake news, fake images, fake reviews, bots, etc) with emphasis to students in ICILS 2023 and around two-fifths (40.7%) of the teachers in Europe state in ICILS 2023 that they have promoted the ICT-based capability to provide digital feedback on the work of others (such as their classmates) with emphasis (Eickelmann et al., 2024). 

On the basis of ICILS-2018-data, Gerick et al. (2024) pointed out for Germany, that there is a positive relation between teachers’ participation in ICT-related professionalisation activities and their emphasis on developing students’ ICT capabilities. However, more diverse analyses of the correlation between aspects of teachers’ ICT-related professionalisation and teachers’ emphasis on developing students' ICT-based capabilities in class from a European perspective utilising recent data sets, have not yet been conducted. Addressing this desideratum, this contribution aims to explore the following research questions, using an empirical approach:

1. What is the status quo regarding teachers’ emphasis on developing students’ ICT capabilities in class (RQ1a) and aspects of teachers’ ICT-related professionalisation (RQ1b) in Europe in ICILS 2023?

2. To what extent are different aspects of teachers’ ICT-related professionalisation related to teachers’ emphasis on developing students' ICT-based capabilities in class in Europe in ICILS 2023?

Addressing the outlined research questions, this contribution conducts secondary analysis of data from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) International Computer and Information Literacy Study 2023 (ICILS 2023; Fraillon, 2024). A representative sample of lower secondary school teachers drawn from a total of 19 member countries of the European Union meeting the sample participation requirements established by the IEA (Eickelmann et al., 2024; Fraillon, 2024), serve as the data basis regarding the empirical research conducted in this contribution. In total, N=38.051 teachers teaching in eighth grade are included in the quantitative analysis. To answer the first research question, descriptive analyses using the IEA-IDB-Analyzer and SPSS 30 software were conducted. In order to depict the status quo in Europe regarding teachers’ emphasis on developing students’ ICT capabilities in class (RQ1a) in ICILS 2023, average scale points of the internationally developed indice related to the aforementioned aspect (T_ICTEMP; emphasis on ICT capabilities in class) - that will serve as the dependent variable with regard to RQ2 - is analysed in a first step. Additionally, four different variables - serving as independent variables for RQ2 - addressing teachers’ activities regarding ICT-related professionalisation, are analysed to depict the status quo of teachers’ ICT-related professionalisation (RQ1b) in Europe in ICILS 2023. The second research question is addressed by a hierarchical multiple regression analysis (Schendera, 2014) that allowed the measurement of the correlations between a set of four independent variables and teachers’ emphasis on developing students’ ICT capabilities in class (T_ICTEMP; emphasis on ICT capabilities in class) as the dependent variable. Against the background of the ICILS 2023 framework model (Eickelmann et al., 2024), ICT-related aspects of teachers’ initial education (T_EMPITE) at the antecedent level and teachers’ participation in professional learning activities (T_PROFLRN), teacher collaboration using ICT (T_COLICT) and teachers’ perceptions of need for professional learning (T_PROFNEED) at the school-related process level serve as independent variables. Throughout these analyses, t-tests were used to indicate statistically significant correlations between the four independent variables and teachers’ emphasis on developing students’ ICT capabilities in class (T_ICTEMP) as the dependent variable. The methodological procedure for a data analysis, to ensure the accurate determination of standard errors, is the jackknife replication method (Johnson & Rust, 1992; Rust, 2013). To allow representative conclusions on teachers teaching in eighth grade in Europe (number of cases weighted to population level), the weighting variable TOTWGTT is included in all calculations conducted regarding this contribution.

Regarding the first research question, the results concerning the status quo in Europe regarding teachers’ emphasis on developing ICT capabilities in class (RQ1a) appear heterogeneously. Overall, teachers in the European comparison group achieve 48.4 scale points regarding their emphasis on ICT capabilities (T_ICTEMP). Analysing the status quo of aspects of teachers’ ICT-related professionalisation (RQ1b) in Europe, results are of heterogeneous manner as well. Looking at the antecedent level, teachers in Europe achieve 48.4 scale points regarding the emphasis on ICT use in their initial teacher education (T_EMPITE), while, with respect to the process level, teachers in Europe achieve 49.0 scale points regarding ICT-related teacher collaboration (T_COLICT). Based on hierarchical regression analyses (RQ2), it was identified for teachers included in the European comparison group that, at the level teacher-related antecedents, emphasis on ICT use in initial teacher education (ß=0.09) is positively related to teachers’ emphasis on developing of students' ICT-based capabilities in class. Regarding the process-level, teachers’ participation in professional learning activities (ß=0.17) and ICT-related teacher collaboration (ß=0.26) also correlate positively to teachers’ emphasis on developing students' ICT-based capabilities in class in Europe. In the European comparison group, however, teacher perceptions of the need for professional learning (ß=-0.02) are negatively related to teachers’ emphasis on developing students' ICT-based capabilities. In the final regression model with an adjusted R² of 0.19, all independent variables retained a statistically significant relationship with teachers’ emphasis on developing students' ICT-based capabilities in class. Thus, considering teachers as key agents for a successful implementation of digital education in schools (European Commission, 2019), these results illustrate a significant relevance of the aforementioned aspects of teacher professionalisation regarding their emphasis on developing students' ICT-based capabilities and can be discussed in a European context looking at specific countries.

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