Teacher Digital Literacy Gaps in Indonesian Education Policy Discourse: A Thematic Analysis of Practitioner and Regulator Perspectives
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Teacher digital competence is a key determinant of digital transformation in education. Yet digital literacy gaps among Indonesian teachers persist, even as the government distributes digital infrastructure nationwide. Prior research has largely measured this competence through self-report surveys, capturing its determinants more than the surrounding discourse. This study extends that work by examining how education practitioners and regulators debate the gap within the same forum, and by linking it to literacy in open educational resources and open-source software. It aims to identify the forms of teacher digital literacy gaps and the relational patterns between practitioner and regulator perspectives in Indonesian education policy discourse in 2025. The study used a qualitative design with Braun and Clarke six-phase thematic analysis of an education policy talk show featuring an education practitioner and a Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education official. The analysis produced four themes: digital literacy competence gaps as a fundamental problem, technology treated as an administrative tool rather than a vehicle for pedagogical transformation, the risk of teachers falling behind students digital familiarity, and policy responses emphasizing infrastructure distribution. These findings reveal a consistent emphasis gap between competence-oriented and infrastructure-oriented solutions. The study's originality lies in bringing practitioner and regulator voices together within a single discourse event rather than as separate survey populations, while its novelty rests on linking this discourse to a previously unexamined dimension: teacher literacy in open educational resources and open-source software. It offers an empirically grounded, discourse-based alternative to the prevailing survey-based literature on teacher digital competence.
Authors: Nesliani Paotonan, Emiliana Alexa Wabiser
Institution: Cenderawasih University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7204703203