The thesis looks into theoretical generalisation and scientific solution of the issue of developing the primary school English teachers’ digital culture. The training of professionals in specialty 013 Primary Education (specialisation – the English language) is divided into preliminary (1805–1930), reformation-search (1931–1947), scientific-search (1948–1983), experimental (1984–1990), information-reformational (1991–1999), European integration (2000–2016), and digital (2017 to present) stages. The leading trends of future primary school English teachers’ professional training in foreign countries and its features at the current stage are singled out.
Future primary school English teachers’ digital culture is defined as a combination of a specialist’s qualities which are characterised by the awareness of digital era values and of personal needs to acquire knowledge, skills, practical experience of using digital technologies for effective digital communication while doing professional activities, including those conducted in English as a means of expanding the scope of professional interaction in today’s digital world. The content and structure of the phenomenon under the study are defined in unity of motivational and axiological (motives, needs, and interests in using digital technologies in professional activities; awareness of values of information, knowledge, and digital communication), cognitive (knowledge about processes, types, and forms of digital content, ways of implementing digital technologies in learning English at primary school, peculiarities of arranging and conducting digital communication), activity-technological (skills to use digital technologies, to create and implement digital content, an ability in digital creativity, skills to digitally communicate, and to follow the netiquette rules), and reflexive (skills to analyse and adequately assess the level of development of digital culture, desire to digital self-development, an ability to arrange the further self-education and self-improvement) components.
The system of developing future primary school English teachers’ digital culture is designed as a holistic and manageable set of components (conceptual-target, content-based, technological, evaluative-reflexive), which takes into account the needs and requirements of education digitalisation, in particular, the increasing significance of distance learning, conceptual changes, caused by the implementation of New Ukrainian school, aimed at making general didactic, educational-methodical and information-technological support of training of professionals in specialty 013 Primary Education (specialisation – the English language); the model of the system is designed as a graphic depiction of specially organized interaction of scientific and pedagogical workers and students in the digital educational environment of professional training.
The pedagogical conditions of effective implementation of the developed system are defined. They are: updating the content of professionally oriented academic disciplines of future primary school English teachers’ professional training according to the trends of digitalising education; developing the motivation to enhancing future primary school English teachers’ digital culture; designing web-environment of distance learning of future professionals in specialty 013 Primary Education (specialisation – the English language), developing and supporting distance courses of professionally oriented academic disciplines; giving future primary school English teachers the necessary complex of knowledge and skills to work with digital technologies and digital content; arranging effective digital communication of the educational process participants, developing the netiquette and digital collaboration.
The result of implementing the system is the positive dynamics in the levels of development of future primary school English teachers’ digital culture.
