The Professional Development of Teacher Educators in Digital Pedagogy Amid Change - Comparing Competence During 2018 and 2021

A changing society requires its members to be ready to evolve and absorb new things quickly. One of the biggest drivers of change was the COVID-19 pandemic era, which greatly impacted all sectors of working and learning life. Universities were also forced to transfer to distance education and remote working. This article examines university-based teacher educators’ professional development as an umbrella concept and their conceptions of digital pedagogical competences specifically. The study was conducted as a longitudinal study, with 15 teacher educators participating in an interview in winter 2018, and 14 of the same interviewees participating in a new interview in winter 2021. The data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. By comparing the data, three themes of digital competence development were produced: generic, pedagogical and didactic, and profession-oriented digital competence. The results are relevant to the more diverse future of teacher education and the digital competences of teacher educators as part of their professional development.