Abstract:

We live in a time of disruption. Along with the accelerated technological development and the digital revolution's materialization, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has taught us that our lives can change abruptly in unexpected ways. Rapid changes in our reality may very well be an inherent part of our being. It may require constant reflection, structuring, and restructuring how we understand our reality, our relations with it, and ultimately, the meaning of human existence. Frequent shifts in consciousness may be a necessary ability as part of human life in today's world.

There is no doubt that the digital age has significant implications on many areas of our lives, such as science, communication, social interactions, and others. The role of digital transformations in the sphere of education is undebatable. The intriguing questions that remained are if and how this revolution affects the human consciousness - how we perceive ourselves and our reality. Floridi (2014) claims that the digital revolution has crucial implications on how we understand our relations to the world and each other, thus to our self-conception.

The way in which human consciousness is affected by the digital revolution has many practical implications, some critical ones in the educational arena. Moreover, following the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, there has been an almost complete transition of all teaching and learning activities from physical reality to a virtual one. Teachers and students worldwide had to transform all school activities into the virtual space overnight. The critical question is, how do these changes affect teachers' consciousness, how do they affect their perceptions of themselves and their role; How do teachers experience the changing reality, and what kind of adaptation is required of them.

This study explores teachers' challenges as they are required to adapt to these changes, mediate them to the younger generation, and implement digital tools and teaching methods. At present times the transition to digital teaching has become a necessity of reality. Therefore, teachers' ability to cope and form a meaningful professional existence identity adapted to this medium is critical. In this situation, it is essential to understand the mechanism of a transformation in consciousness among teachers in light of the digital age. We examine this issue via an existential perspective, assuming that for at least some teachers, the transformations of the digital age may undermine traditional perceptions of a teacher's role and requires teachers to re-examine their professional existential values. The study deals with the implications of this type of existential professional change, in aim of developing dedicated tools to support teachers in successfully coping with the ever-changing reality as part of their constant pursuit of meaningful and fulfilling professional practice. The study is qualitative research involving in-depth interviews with high school science teachers.

The first results of our study confirmed the potential of the proposed existentialist approach to analyzing teacher beliefs. They allowed us to look at the problem from a new perspective to answer several questions about integrating digital technologies in education.

Keywords:

Digital age, Teachers' existential professional change, professional identity.