Overview
It is an honor and privilege to introduce my first issue as editor-in-chief of Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal). I take on this role with deep appreciation for our journal’s commitment to cutting-edge scholarship in educational technology and teacher education, our vibrant community of authors, reviewers, editors, and readers, and the mentorship of my predecessor, Dr. Chrystalla Mouza.
This issue highlights a key transition in educational technology. As artificial intelligence (AI) and digital platforms permeate learning spaces, the focus must shift from basic adoption to ethical, equitable, and context-sensitive practice. Spanning diverse international and disciplinary perspectives, the articles in this issue place educator agency, professional wisdom, and human-centered design at the forefront. They offer a timely reminder: Technology may transform teaching and learning, but educators, students, and communities ultimately shape practice. Our field’s future will be defined not just by technological breakthroughs, but by the human judgment guiding them. Educators and learners should always be in the center.
Major Themes in the Issue
As digital technologies reshape educational environments, discussions surrounding innovation are shifting from basic access and adoption toward crucial questions of purpose, context, and human agency (Engeness & Gamlem, 2025). Emerging tools, from AI and digital curriculum marketplaces to computational environments, present unprecedented opportunities to support teaching and learning. Yet, as these tools become embedded in classrooms and teacher preparation programs, key questions emerge: How do these emerging technologies transform learning experiences? What knowledge and dispositions enable teachers to leverage them effectively? And how do we ensure technology-enhanced learning remains equitable, ethical, and culturally responsive?
The articles in this issue address these questions through diverse disciplinary and methodological lenses. Together, they demonstrate that meaningful integration extends far beyond tool mastery; it requires educators who critically evaluate, adapt, and align digital tools with core educational values with professional judgment.
A central thread across this volume is educator agency and professional judgment. Whether investigating critical digital literacy, computational thinking in science, or technological pedagogical content knowledge (or technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge [TPACK]), these studies position teachers as active decision-makers rather than passive adopters. They reinforce that educator beliefs, identity, self-efficacy, and experience fundamentally shape how technologies are enacted in practice.
Equally prominent is the critical role of context. Instructional decisions are dictated not merely by resource availability, but by educators’ deep understanding of their learners, disciplinary demands, and sociocultural dynamics. From preservice teachers navigating online simulations to counteract the digital use divide, to investigations of online mathematics and science instruction, these articles reveal how context-sensitive practice turns technology from a passive delivery mechanism into a catalyst for deeper engagement.
Finally, this issue examines the growing ecosystem of commercial and crowdsourced digital platforms. By exploring elementary teachers’ engagement with platforms like TeachersPayTeachers and Pinterest, the authors highlight the dual nature of these marketplaces, balancing expanded access to lesson materials against pressing questions of quality, representation, and professional autonomy.
Introduction of the Articles
In the CITE-English Language Arts Education article, “It’s More Than Just Literacies, It’s Also Histories: How High School Teachers’ Self-Reflexivity Shapes Humanizing Critical Digital Literacy Pedagogies,” McBride and Gambino examine how high school teachers draw upon self-reflexivity to enact critical digital literacy instruction. By exploring how teachers connect personal histories, identities, and experiences to their pedagogical decisions, the study illuminates the role of reflective practice in fostering humanizing approaches to digital literacy. Findings offer important implications for preparing educators to critically engage with technology while centering students’ lived experiences.
In the CITE-Mathematics Education article, “Transformational Technology: Improved Learning Opportunities in Online Mathematics Instruction,” Ruef and Jilk investigate how intentional tool selection fosters equitable, collaborative reasoning in virtual mathematics environments. Examining an elementary mathematics content course sequence through a modified PICRAT framework, Ruef and Jilk trace the impact of equipping preservice teachers with document cameras to share visual representations of their mathematical thinking. They found that shifting from instructor-led “scribing” to student-managed visual artifact sharing broadened participation and elevated student agency. The study demonstrates that technology achieves transformational potential when evaluated for its pedagogical and collaborative affordances rather than its use as a mere delivery vehicle.
In the CITE-Science Education article, “Teacher Self-Efficacy: The Impact on Computational Thinking-Infused Elementary Science Lessons,” Figueroa et al. examine how professional development (PD) shapes elementary educators’ capacity to integrate computational thinking (CT) into science instruction. Grounded in Bandura’s four sources of self-efficacy and utilizing a concurrent triangulation mixed-methods design, the study demonstrates how targeted PD builds teacher confidence, directly driving instructional decision-making and classroom innovation. The findings highlight that sustaining meaningful interdisciplinary CT-STEM learning requires PD models that explicitly cultivate teacher self-efficacy alongside content mastery.
In the CITE-Social Studies Education article, “Just Kind of Stuck: Possibilities and Pitfalls of TeachersPayTeachers and Pinterest in the Elementary Social Studies Classroom,” Schroeder examines how preservice educators navigate commercial online marketplaces during curriculum development. Through a qualitative case study of an elementary student teacher designing a 12-lesson social studies unit, Schroeder applies frameworks of boundary crossing and pedagogical design capacity to analyze how crowd-sourced resources are selected and integrated. The study reveals that while platforms like TeachersPayTeachers and Pinterest offer appealing boundary-crossing objects for inspiration, a novice teacher’s emerging pedagogical design capacity can foster an activity-first mindset that ultimately undermines curricular coherence. Schroeder highlights the critical role teacher preparation programs play in guiding candidates to critically evaluate, adapt, and align crowdsourced materials with overarching disciplinary goals.
In the CITE-Objects to Think with article, “The Sangala Initiative: Establishing a K–12 Engineering Program for East Africa,” Bull et al. detail an effort spearheaded by the National Technology Leadership Society (NTLS) to build sustainable STEM capacity in the Global South. Moving beyond traditional equipment-donation models, the initiative directly addresses regional knowledge bottlenecks through the co-development of a K–12 engineering curriculum in partnership with local educators. Grounded in the concept of Sangala, a Lumasaba term meaning joy in learning, the project integrates hands-on engineering design, teacher leadership development, and community-centered problem-solving. Bull et al. demonstrate that meaningful and lasting educational transformation requires contextually responsive partnerships that cultivate local agency, strengthen technical infrastructure, and expand educational capacity.
In the CITE-Current Research editorial, “Operationalizing Codesign Toward Ethical Creation of AI Experiences: The AI-X Framework,” Mak et al. propose a paradigm shift from educator AI literacy to AI design agency. Responding to the rise of low-code and vibe-coding tools that enable teachers to build custom AI applications, Mak et al. introduce the AI-X framework to guide educators as they transition from passive consumers to ethical creators of AI-driven learning experiences. Grounded in participatory codesign, the framework operationalizes ethical reflection, pedagogical intentionality, and stakeholder collaboration to ensure custom AI tools remain human-centered, equitable, and contextually grounded.
In the CITE-Current Research article, “High School Teachers’ Perspectives on Deepfakes in Student Life: Recommendations for Policy, Practices, and Design,” Byrne et al. address the rising interpersonal harms of synthetic media and deepfakes in K–12 environments. Through a participatory codesign session with nine public high school teachers, Byrne et al. co-constructed realistic scenarios to trace how noncurricular AI misuse complicates existing school conduct procedures and threatens student well-being. The study’s central recommendation stresses that mitigating these risks requires expanding AI literacy education beyond the classroom to include teachers, administrators, and families. Ultimately, Byrne et al. outline actionable frameworks for policymakers, school leaders, and AI developers centered on consent, privacy, and individuals’ rights to their digital likeness and voice.
In the CITE-Current Research article, “State of Literature Regarding Video Cases and Clubs for In-Service Teachers,” Dunbar et al. present a systematic literature review analyzing research published between 2014 and 2024 on video-based professional learning for practicing educators. Synthesizing 17 empirical studies, divided between facilitated and participant-led models, Dunbar et al. demonstrate that video cases consistently spark teacher discussion and reflective practice. Crucially, the review highlights the vital role facilitators play in scaffolding discussions toward meaningful pedagogical growth. Dunbar et al. conclude by identifying pressing gaps in the literature, calling for future research that evaluates how specific video formats drive classroom practice and directly connects video-based professional development to student learning outcomes.
In the CITE-Current Research article, “Developing Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Among Chinese Teachers: The Role of Beliefs and Practices,” Kang and Trainin investigate how a professional development program shapes the integration of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge (TPACK) among Chinese language educators. Examining changes across pedagogical beliefs, technological beliefs, assessment practices, and student-centered instructional practices, Kang and Trainin found significant gains across all TPACK domains following training. Notably, posttest TPACK scores were strongly linked to shifts in technological and pedagogical beliefs, while assessment practices consistently correlated with TPACK growth. Conversely, student-centered instructional practices showed no immediate correlation, likely reflecting the time required to translate belief shifts into enacted classroom practice. Kang and Trainin demonstrate that effective TPACK growth depends on professional development that intentionally integrates belief structures alongside assessment strategies.
Finally, in the CITE-Current Research article, “Bridging the Digital Use Divide in an Online Simulation: How Contextual Knowledge (XK) Shapes Preservice Teachers’ Technology Integration Decisions,” Weisberg investigates how targeted instruction around the digital use divide, the pattern wherein minoritized students disproportionately use technology for lower-level, teacher-driven tasks, influences instructional planning. Examining 26 preservice teachers in an asynchronous technology integration course, Weisberg analyzes how candidates applied Contextual Knowledge (XK) to design technology-enhanced lessons within an online classroom simulation. Findings revealed that explicitly learning about digital inequities prompted preservice teachers to leverage XK in ways that yielded significantly more equitable, student-centered learning experiences. Ultimately, Weisberg’s study demonstrates that closing the digital use divide requires teacher preparation programs to actively cultivate novice educators’ contextual awareness and equity mindsets alongside technical proficiency.
Conclusion
As we look toward the future, we hope these articles inspire teacher educators, researchers, and practitioners to continue advancing educational technologies that serve not only instructional efficiency and innovation, but also the broader goals of equity, human flourishing, and meaningful learning. We wish CITE Journal readers an engaging and productive academic year of scholarship and practice. As always, we welcome commentaries and responses from our community.
References
Engeness, I., & Gamlem, S. M. (2025). Agency in digital education: empowering students and teachers in technology-rich learning environments. Education sciences, 15(8), 1051.
