This study investigates the role played by parents as mediators of young children’s access and engagement with digital technologies. In Belgium, Germany, Latvia and Portugal, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 families in each country, including one child between 6 and 7 years old. Our findings show that parents of young children mainly play the role of ‘gatekeepers’ when it comes to facilitating and constraining access to and use of digital technologies. Parents’ perceptions of the efficacy of digital technologies as responsible entertainment and as educational tools influence the technologies available at home and accessible to the child. These perceptions in turn impact parents’ mediation strategies with regard to children’s actual use of digital technologies, with restrictive mediation – of time and less of content – and supervision applied most. The power exerted by parents over access and use may be understood as a limitation of the children’s rights. On the other hand, parents are not always concerned with the right of protection as they believe – sometimes incorrectly – that they are in control of the content their children are exposed to.

In the spring of 2020, when the entire education system worldwide switched to distance learning, parents became key learning agents, helping students to understand how to continue learning, how to use digital solutions and how to support students in this process. This article summarizes parents’ views on the distance learning process and the challenges they faced. This is part of a larger study carried out within the project “Life with COVID-19: Evaluation of the overcoming coronavirus crisis in Latvia and recommendations for social resilience in the future” (CoLife), which was launched in Latvia in the summer of 2020 and analyzed what digital learning tools schools can use to support students in their learning. Parents’ views on 738 school-age children (313 responses about 1st–4th graders; 362 responses for 5th–9th graders and 63 responses for 10th–12th graders) were obtained, and the main conclusions were that after parents became learning agents, they would have liked more support from educators to understand how to support their children in the learning process. Parents would also have liked schools to be interested in how their children are doing and whether everything necessary is available. Overall, it can be concluded that in this crisis, parents tried to support their children, and in most cases, it was the mothers of the students who provided this support, but it was primarily based on the need to use digital technologies, which means that children whose parents do not use digital technologies may be more exposed to the danger of falling into a risk group with larger educational gaps.

Alongside reading, writing, and numeracy digital literacy has become an increasingly crucial component of functional competences in the modern era. Digital competences are essential for educators who wish to stay updated with the changing needs of their students and the education sector. These competences can help them engage their students better, improve their teaching effectiveness, and advance their careers. Considering the ongoing changes in both the field of education and the field of technologies, it is important to explore the current needs for improving digital competences of educators including students in the field of education, to provide them with the necessary support. This study aims to develop recommendations for improving digital competence of educators by combining students’ self-assessment through surveys with stakeholder opinions concerning digital competence development of educators ascertained in a focus group discussion. Results of the research reveal that education students do not have a statistically different self-assessment of their digital competences than students from other study fields. And although students evaluate their digital competences as high, stakeholders point out that there is a lack of digital competences to carry out technology-enhanced learning and a negative attitude towards digitalization of education among all educators’ age groups. Improving the availability of digital resources and technological support as well as incorporating organisational level strategies that require application and improvement of digital competence could remedy the issue.

Competence-based education has been in the spotlight for several years, and it is a topical issue in the European Union as well as marking the reform of the Latvian education system. The Council of the EU considers entrepreneurial competence to be one of the key competences for lifelong learning, and Latvia’s school reforms require teachers to create a study process where students develop entrepreneurial competence. This publication presents research on the self-assessed entrepreneurial competence of teacher education students to find out whether there is any correlation between their assessment of entrepreneurial competence and their readiness/ability to develop this competence in their students, as well as which methods/activities they see as suitable to do so in the classroom and the remote study process. An online survey using the QuestionPro platform was used to collect the data. The questionnaire was fully completed by 157 pedagogy students from various higher education institutions, and it consisted of four question blocks: demographic and socio-cultural questions, entrepreneurial competence, digital competence, and open-ended questions. The data provided by the questionnaire developed for this research showed that students’ self-assessed entrepreneurial competence in a remote study process rated their digital competences highest, followed by their entrepreneurial competences. The results indicate that students are sufficiently prepared to be able to further develop their entrepreneurial competence in the remote study process. From the data, it can be concluded that higher education needs to focus on the development of entrepreneurial competence and should also supplement the methodological knowledge of students to improve their readiness to teach entrepreneurial competences to others. It should also be noted that there is a strong correlation between students’ entrepreneurial competence and their readiness to teach entrepreneurial competences to others. An online survey using the QuestionPro platform was used to collect the data. The questionnaire was fully completed by 157 pedagogy students from various higher education institutions, and it consisted of four question blocks: demographic and socio-cultural questions, entrepreneurial competence, digital competence, and open-ended questions.

In the 21st century, characterized by the continual evolution of education and new educational needs being raised and demanded, teachers’ professional competence encounters a series of challenges. In the context of Latvian education, it is highly significant to enhance the professional competence of future teachers and adapt it according to real-world challenges and opportunities. The professional competence of future teachers encounters challenges ranging from adapting to technological advancements to fostering an inclusive learning environment for diverse groups of students. In this research mixed method approach is applied, quantitative data from the self-evaluation instrument developed through the project “Development and Implementation of the Education Quality Monitoring System” (2nd round) and qualitative data from focus group discussions with education stakeholders are employed to analyze the challenges and opportunities for the development of future teachers’ professional competence. Based on the analysis, challenges for the enhancement of future teachers’ professional competence were identified at both institutional and individual levels among those strengthening schools as learning organizations and fostering open mindset toward change. By shedding light on these challenges and opportunities, this study contributes to the broader discourse on teachers’ preparation and continuous development, ensuring their readiness to navigate the multifaceted landscape of modern education effectively.

The aim of the present research is to study the essence, structure, implementation, and indicators of the concept of the digital transversal competence of university students for its improvement in the study process. This article includes the relevance of transversal competences and the essence of the concept of digital competence. This concept is then developed, the methodology of digital competence assessment and measurement is adapted, and the content analysis method was used to classify and analyze the expression of digital competence in eight professional areas.