Becoming a Teacher in Times of Digital Transformation
Zurich, 2025
I successfully completed my Doctorate in Educational Science at the Zurich University of Teacher Education, within the Centre for Education and Digital Transformation, as a doctoral student affiliated with the University of Zurich, Institute of Education. I was also part of the PhD Excellence Programme of the Digital Society Initiative at the University of Zurich.
My doctoral research examined the impact of digital transformation on education, with a particular focus on how future teachers perceive, interpret, and engage with digital technologies and artificial intelligence. My doctoral dissertation examined to what extent future teachers consider digital transformation and artificial intelligence when choosing a teaching career. By extending the FIT-Choice framework with digital and AI-related factors, the thesis investigated how motivations, beliefs, and professional visions align with the evolving demands of a digitally transformed educational landscape, across different motivational profiles and cultural contexts.
During my doctoral studies, I also conducted international research work at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, which further enriched the comparative and international dimension of my research.
By combining psychological and educational perspectives, my work contributes to a deeper understanding of how motivation, beliefs, and professional visions are shaped in times of rapid technological change, and how these factors may influence teachers’ engagement with digitalization and AI in education.
My doctoral supervisors were Prof. Dr. Dominik Petko (University of Zurich) and Prof. Dr. Michael Geiss (Zurich University of Teacher Education), and the doctoral committee was composed of Prof. Dr. Sascha Schneider (University of Zurich) and Prof. Dr. Robert Klassen (University of Oxford).
