Digital competence for sustainable education of pre-service teachers: a systematic literature review (2014–2024)

With the rapid advancement of educational digitalization, pre-service teachers' digital competence has become a critical prerequisite for adapting to modern teaching practices and promoting high-quality education. This systematic review provides a comprehensive analysis of research on the digital competence of pre-service teachers over the past decade (2014-2024). Drawing on 38 studies retrieved from the Web of Science and Scopus databases, it examines several key aspects, including publication trends, frameworks, research themes and achievements, research methods, and current research limitations. Findings indicate a steady increase in scholarly publications on pre-service teachers' digital competence over this period, reflecting the growing importance of digital literacy for effective teaching in modern classrooms. Among the frameworks employed, the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework emerges as the most widely adopted, helping researchers understand how technology can be effectively integrated into teaching practices. A notable trend is the integration of such frameworks, which enriches conceptual foundations and broadens practical applications. In addition, pre-service teachers generally demonstrate adequate digital skills for daily tasks, but show uneven performance across competence dimensions, with particular weaknesses in digital content creation, pedagogical integration, and problem-solving. The field has gradually evolved from descriptive analyses of competence levels toward more application-oriented inquiries, highlighting training design, assessment development, and technology integration. Review analysis reveals that pre-service teachers' digital competence is influenced by a combination of demographic, psychological, educational, and socio-cultural factors. Several key limitations have been identified, including insufficient sample representativeness, less rigorous research designs, interference from background factors etc., underscoring the need for more robust research designs, diverse assessment instruments, and larger, more representative samples to strengthen the evidence base. The findings also reveal gaps in complex technical operations and teaching applications, as well as in training programs related to technology integration and innovation. By providing a comprehensive synthesis of existing literature, this review offers valuable insights for educators, policymakers, and researchers aiming to foster the digital readiness of future teachers. Future research should address these limitations by employing larger and more diverse samples, integrating mixed-methods designs, including multilingual and qualitative studies, and exploring digital competence in specific subjects or grade levels.