Teacher’s digital competence as an indicator of the educational environment transformation as exemplified by the Saratov region

The relevance of the research is due to the development and widespread introduction of digital technologies in a wide context of sociocultural and economic processes, the inevitable digital transformation of the processes of education, upbringing and development of the younger generation. The teacher is seen as the main agent of digital literacy, the vehicle to pass on digital culture. The teacher acts as the main subject of two processes: one of digital transformation of the educational environment; the other of the retraining for the digital economy at the level of general education. The objective of the research is to assess the digital competence of teachers in educational organizations of Saratov and the Saratov region as well as their readiness to create a digital educational environment. The research reveals modern Russian and foreign scientific approaches explaining the essence of digital competence as a meta-subject competence, its specifics in relation to teachers’ activities. The authors identify the content of four components of teachers’ digital competence and six ways according to which it can be formed and developed among educators. The article provides a systematic approach revealing the leading functions of a teacher in the educational context, when the latter is created with the help of digital tools. The essential indicators are singled out. They are used to propose a system of levels according to which digital competence is built: they are basic, optimal, advanced. The authors conducted an online survey of teachers of Saratov and the Saratov region, had conversations with them and observed their work (N = 1500). Basing on the data, the article presents an analytical report on the real state of how and to what extent teachers’ digital competence is formed depending on their professional experience. The assessment of the degree of teachers’ readiness to create a digital educational environment is given. On the basis of pedagogical modeling, the article proposes the ways and methods to solve the problem of interest at different stages of the professional life cycle.