Navigating Digital Demands: A Phenomenological Study of Teachers with Limited Digital Competence

Teachers are expected to use digital tools for instruction, assessment, communication, and administrative reporting. Most research on teachers’ digital competence has measured competence levels with surveys or has examined emergency remote teaching during the pandemic, so little is known about how teachers who perceive their own digital competence as limited experience these demands in ordinary school life. This study explored the lived experiences, challenges, and coping strategies of teachers with limited digital competence, and the recommendations they offered to colleagues. A qualitative phenomenological design was used. Fifteen teachers of one public secondary school in Don Carlos, Bukidnon, Philippines, who perceived themselves as having limited skills or confidence in required digital tasks, were purposively sampled during School Year 2026–2027. Data were gathered through audio-recorded, semi-structured interviews supplemented by field notes, transcribed verbatim, anonymized, and analyzed thematically. Four themes emerged: (1) teachers navigated digital demands through struggle, adaptation, and gradual growth; (2) their struggles arose from the interaction of limited skills, technological conditions, and professional expectations; (3) they built digital confidence through persistent learning, social support, and adaptive coping; and (4) they recommended supportive collaboration, continuous hands-on learning, and inclusive school practices. Participants linked anxiety, embarrassment, and reduced confidence to unfamiliar applications, unstable connectivity, and overlapping deadlines, and they coped by rehearsing procedures, asking trusted colleagues, and keeping personal guides and printed backups. Their accounts tied these difficulties to workplace conditions as well as to individual skill. Participants considered hands-on training with follow-up, peer mentoring, reliable equipment, sufficient time, and freedom to ask for help without embarrassment necessary. The findings describe 15 teachers in one school and are not intended for generalization.