Abstract
Developments in early childhood education (ECE) over the last two decades have for many countries meant a change towards a more subject-oriented pedagogy in which preschool staff are commissioned to teach technology to young children. This has been proved to be a challenge to the staff. Through analysis of activities at two preschool units, this study shows how technology education can be provided in ECE, and what kind of knowledge-learning by children can be facilitated in different activities and depending on the actions of the staff. An ethnographically-inspired perspective was employed, using methods such as participant observation and formal and informal interviews, in order to investigate the technological knowledge encouraged by the staff at two preschool units in Sweden. The results show that staff promote children’s learning of a variety of technological content, mainly relating to technological objects and creative processes. This range from simple knowledge of how to handle a knife or a pair of scissors to more complex knowledge of how to build something to be fit for purpose and how different tools or materials are more or less adequate for a specific activity or design. The result also show that the way in which the staff address these contents effect which abilities and skills children are promoted to develop.
Highlights
Developments in early childhood education (ECE) over the last two decades have for many countries meant a change towards a more subject-oriented pedagogy (Broström 2017; Van Laere et al 2014)
Some studies show teaching is happening in preschool but that preschool teachers do not call it teaching, other studies show that prioritising and teaching subject specific content seems to be difficult for preschool teachers and scrutinies have found teaching of technology is scarce (Swedish Schools Inspectorate 2012, 2017)
As this is a small-scale study, recruiting its participants from a network of mathematics and technology pilots who can be expected to have more knowledge about how to teach technology to young children than other preschool teachers in general, the results of the study cannot be expected to be representative for ECE in general
Summary
Developments in early childhood education (ECE) over the last two decades have for many countries meant a change towards a more subject-oriented pedagogy (Broström 2017; Van Laere et al 2014) This change could be described as a slide from the social pedagogic tradition (Bennett 2005) with a holistic view on children’s learning and development towards a greater focus on children’s cognitive abilities and teaching children specific subjects. Thulin 2011; Sundberg et al 2016) and scrutinies have found teaching of technology is scarce (Swedish Schools Inspectorate 2012, 2017) This particular subject is vaguely defined and lacks any long-standing teaching tradition or academic discipline from which to take guidance (Hagberg and Hultén 2005). The question, in relation to the curriculum, is whether teachers in preschool have managed to broaden teaching to include activities where children get to investigate, discuss and reflect on technology
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