Exploring Professional Digital Competence in Pre‐Service English Teachers: From Reflective Growth to Future Pedagogical Envisioning

ABSTRACT

Developing professional digital competence (PDC) is rapidly becoming a priority for pre‐service TESOL teachers, yet research shows that they often lack readiness to integrate digital practices. While teacher education programs increasingly support the development of PDC (e.g., through dedicated technology courses), it remains unclear how pre‐service teachers engage in this process and imagine digital practices in their future roles. This study therefore explored pre‐service English teachers' experiences of PDC growth and their pedagogical envisioning of digital integration. It employed multimodal analysis of reflective infographics ( n  = 26) created by students to evaluate their PDC learning in a TESOL technology course in Hong Kong. Five themes were identified through thematic and visual grammar analysis: (1) feeling frustrated by digital possibilities, (2) developing evaluative capabilities, (3) becoming learning designers, (4) balancing digital affordances with contextual realities, and (5) embracing ongoing digital growth. This article highlights the importance of developing adaptive PDC and dispositional competence within initial teacher education. Based on the findings, it introduces five essential dispositions (resilience, criticality, creativity, adaptability, and reflexivity) to support pre‐service teachers' development of PDC.