Becoming Digital: Lecturers’ Meaning-Making of Digital Transformation in Islamic Higher Education

Digital transformation in higher education changes academic work as well as institutional systems, raising questions about how lecturers interpret its benefits and demands. This study examines how lecturers at Universitas Islam Negeri Sulthan Thaha Saifuddin Jambi, Indonesia, experience, interpret, and negotiate digital transformation in their academic work. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was employed, drawing primarily on semi-structured interviews with ten lecturers, supplemented by observation and document review. Analysis proceeded through repeated reading, initial noting, within-case theme development, and cross-case interpretation. Five interrelated themes concerned acceptance of digitalization alongside application fragmentation, adaptation through collective learning, negotiation of digital demands against academic workload, changing work culture, and the preservation of academic purpose. The fifth theme connected the others through lecturers’ judgments about whether technology supported their professional responsibilities. The findings are synthesized as negotiated becoming digital: lecturers’ ongoing incorporation of institutional digital requirements while evaluating and adjusting their implications for meaningful academic work. This situated interpretation connects participation in modernization with practical efforts to preserve professional priorities. The findings suggest that institutional managers should examine overlapping workflows, provide continuing technical and peer support, and evaluate digital initiatives through their contribution to academic responsibilities. The study offers an interpretive contribution from one Islamic university rather than a general model of digital transformation