Understanding the Digital Divide Through Rural Teachers’ Lived Experiences: Implications for Digital Literacy and Teaching Efficacy

Digital technologies have become widely used in education, yet disparities between rural and urban schools persist. In rural contexts, teachers often face unstable equipment, limited technical support, and heavy workloads. However, few studies have explored how these challenges are experienced in everyday teaching. This study examined how the digital divide shaped rural teachers’ classroom experiences, digital literacy, and professional efficacy. A qualitative design was adopted, with semi-structured interviews conducted with eight rural primary and secondary school teachers, and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed three key themes. First, the digital divide was not experienced as a lack of devices, but as contextual classroom constraints related to infrastructure instability, insufficient technical support, and time pressure. Second, although teachers possessed basic operational skills, many hesitated to use digital tools in everyday teaching due to concerns about classroom control and technical uncertainty. Third, repeated technological disruptions undermined teachers’ sense of efficacy and shaped more cautious instructional choices. Overall, the study shifts the understanding of the digital divide from access and skills toward the role of contextual constraints and their impact on rural teachers’ professional efficacy in classroom practice. Improving digital teaching therefore requires not only stable infrastructure and timely technical support, but also attention to teachers’ lived classroom experiences.