The Impacts of Digital Literacy among Chinese Higher Vocational Teachers: Uncovering the Professional SILO Effect

HRMARS - In the burgeoning era of Education 4.0, the digital transformation of higher vocational education has become a strategic imperative for fostering a high-quality technical workforce. However, teachers in vocational colleges face a unique dual-professional challenge: they must simultaneously possess industry-specific professional skills and digital pedagogical capabilities. Despite the growing body of literature on Teacher Digital Literacy (TDL), existing research often treats it as a monolithic construct, failing to scrutinize how distinct sub-dimensions—specifically Social Responsibility Literacy (SRL), Digital Pedagogical Literacy (DPL), and Professional Digital Literacy (PDL)—synergistically or differentially influence overall digital competence. Addressing this gap, this study conducted a large-scale empirical survey of teachers from higher vocational colleges across 11 prefecture-level cities in Jiangxi Province, China. Utilizing a stratified cluster sampling method, 400 valid questionnaires were collected and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results reveal a heterogeneous influence on mechanism. Digital Pedagogical Literacy (DPL) exerts the strongest significant positive influence on TDL, confirming that pedagogical integration is the operational core of digital competence. Social Responsibility Literacy (SRL) also demonstrates a significant positive impact, functioning as a critical normative anchor for ethical technology use. However, contrary to the skill transfer assumption prevalent in vocational education policy, Professional Digital Literacy (PDL) showed no statistically significant direct effect on TDL. This finding uncovers a "Professional Silo Effect," suggesting that mastery of industry-specific digital tools does not naturally translate into general educational digital competence. The study concludes with targeted policy recommendations for bridging the gap between industry skills and pedagogical application in the digital age.