Understanding teachers' scholarly information interaction in digital-intelligent environments: an extended UTAUT model with urban–rural, gender, and experience differences in China

Introduction Teachers' scholarly information interaction refers to the ways teachers seek, evaluate, share, and collaboratively construct scholarly information during research-informed teaching and professional inquiry. With the rapid digital transformation of education systems, such interaction increasingly reflects teachers' digital-intelligent competencies and serves as a critical pathway for academic development.. Methods Drawing on an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework, this study proposes a model to explain teachers' intention to engage in scholarly information interaction. Survey data were collected from 454 primary and secondary school teachers in Guangxi, China, and structural equation modeling was employed to test the proposed relationships and examine group differences. Results The results indicate that technical confidence, information literacy, academic motivation, organizational support, and external environment significantly influence teachers' intention to participate in scholarly information interaction. Multi–group analyses further reveal moderating effects: gender positively moderates the relationship between external environment and organizational support; urban–rural context negatively moderates the relationship between information literacy and organizational support; and teaching experience negatively moderates the relationship between academic motivation and information literacy. Discussion These findings suggest that enhancing teachers' scholarly information interaction requires coordinated efforts to strengthen individual capabilities and motivation while improving organizational and contextual support. Targeted strategies for different teacher groups are essential, including promoting gender equity, reducing urban–rural disparities, and providing differentiated professional development, thereby supporting educational equity and improving academic outcomes.