Adequate Digital Competence in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

The key questions this study seeks to answer is what adequate digital competence is and how preschool teachers characterise young children’s adequate digital competence. A variety of frameworks and models have been developed to exemplify and characterise teacher’s digital competences. However, to date, there is hardly any study examining young children’s digital competencies in early childhood education. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 13 preschool teachers at seven preschools in the centre of Sweden and analysed using qualitative content analysis. The findings of the study show that children’s digital competence in early education is an increasingly complex notion which can be characterised by seven key aspects: To get better understanding and be familiar with digital technologies, To use digital technologies, To have a critical approach toward digital technologies, To have ethical media competences, To have problem-solving skills, To be producers, not just consumers, of digital technologies, and To dare trying digital technologies. This study, further, portrayed the digitally competent preschool teacher’s qualifications in order to fulfil preschool teachers’ complex task (i.e. educare) in children’s learning and development.