The digitisation of education has heightened the importance of examining which competences are needed among teachers and student teachers. In the past decade, the opportunities and challenges related to using digital technologies in teaching and training have made the concept of ‘digital competence’ increasingly relevant. This paper examines how researchers have characterised the dimensions of teachers' digital competences both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a literature review, 116 articles were analysed to identify prevalent understandings of teachers' and student teachers' digital competence. The search was conducted in two rounds: the period up to and including 2019 and supplements from 2020 to 2021. The latter search focused on literature addressing school closures because of ‘lockdowns’. The findings indicate that research on teachers' digital competence seems unclear regarding who benefits from teachers' digital competence, the teacher's role and the links between competence and school subject domains. Moreover, teachers have a more functional role than a designer role. In addition, studies on digital competence are typically based on self-reported data, and most publications that have examined the concept of digital competence include knowledge, skills or attitudes. The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have increased the focus on the whole group of pupils and on the use of ready-made educational designs. The pandemic may also have increased researchers' reliance on self-reported data.