The research project addresses the critical need to implement sustainable and transversal digital education in primary schools while ensuring that teachers receive sustainable professional development (PD) in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

The research is motivated by the recognition that digital competence is essential for success in the 21^st century and that inequalities in the early years of primary school can lead to long-term disadvantages. To promote equity in education, it is important that teachers hold high expectations for all children and avoid bias (e.g. regarding gender, migration, ability). For digital education in early primary unplugged, role-play-based robotics activities are more acceptable to teachers than screen-based activities.

To address the overarching research question of how primary school teachers can be supported to continuously develop competences for equitable and transversal digital education, the project is structured into two parts: The first part aims to assess the challenges and needs of teachers in providing digital education in primary schools. A systematic literature review and qualitative focus group interviews with approximately 40 teachers will be conducted for this purpose. The second part aims to co-construct a PD-strategy for transversal digital education in collaboration with teachers, with a particular focus on AI as an example of a rapidly evolving field. This phase also validates the effectiveness of the PD-strategy and identifies key design principles that contribute to its success. This part follows a mixed methods approach. It includes video and ethnographic observations and teacher interviews, as well as a pre-post control group design to assess teachers' digital content knowledge, beliefs, self-efficacy and expectations. The target sample consists of 40-60 teachers each for the intervention and control groups. 

The project is expected to highlight successful design principles for sustainable PD in digital education and to identify effective strategies for PD tailored to the needs of primary school teachers. In this context, we expect to find improved teacher competencies, higher awareness of equity issues and capacity to tackle them, and higher self-efficacy in digital education, as well as unbiased high teacher expectations for all children. Schools will therefore benefit from improved teaching practices as teachers acquire new skills and strategies for integrating digital education and AI into the classroom and making digital education more equitable.