Influence of Age, Gender and Years of Experience on Teachers in Promoting Strategies for Digital Sustainability and Data Protection

Abstract

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The aim of this research was to know how widespread the activities were, and to what extent they were being implemented, in relation to data protection and digital sustainability in Primary Education schools. This study also analyzed whether teachers’ age, gender and years of experience in the profession influenced the development of this type of practices among students. To this end, the GAUBIPRO (4150516/6) questionnaire, registered at the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office, was sent out to 308 Spanish teachers in Primary Education in Spain. The investigation was conducted by applying three multivariate statistical procedures: chi-squared with Kendall’s Tau-c coefficient, variance analysis using a single-factor ANOVA, and the HJ-Plot method, to find patterns of group behavior among the variables studied. The results showed that age, gender and years of experience were significant variables in the development of strategies for data protection and digital sustainability in Primary Education. For years of experience, the results showed that teachers with the highest mean number of years in the teaching profession were the least likely to apply data protection protocols. Male teachers were found to promote more general data protection strategies, while female teachers were more active in the design and use of activities in the classroom. In terms of age, the results clearly demonstrated that the higher the mean age of the teachers, the lower the rate of application of actions to promote data protection and digital security among young students, in three variables in particular: “foster strategies”, “advise students” and “inform families”.