Abstract
This socioculturally framed case study investigates the digital literacy practices of two young children in their homes in Finland. The aim is to generate new knowledge about children’s digital literacy practices embedded in their family lives and to consider how these practices relate to their emergent literacy learning opportunities. The study asks two questions, ‘How do digital technologies and media inform the daily lives of children in their homes? Moreover, how do the sociocultural contexts of homes mediate children’s digital literacy practices across operational, cultural, critical and creative dimensions of literacy?’ The empirical data collection drew on the ‘day-in-the-life’ methodology, using a combination of video recordings, photographs, observational field notes and parent interviews. The data were subjected to thematic analysis following an ethnographic logic of enquiry. The findings make visible how children’s digital literacy practices are intertwined in families’ everyday activities, guided by parental rules and values. The study demonstrates children’s operational, cultural and creative digital literacy practices. The study also points out the need for more attention to children’s critical engagement in their digital literacy practices.
Highlights
Digitization permeates the everyday lives of many children across the Global North from a very early age (Chaudron, 2015; Danby et al, 2018; Kumpulainen et al, 2019; Suoninen, 2014)
In the midst of these concerns, it is surprising how little is yet known about the ways in which young children use and interact with digital devices in their homes, and how these relate to their literacy practices and emergent literacy learning opportunities (Burnett and Daniels, 2015; Kumpulainen and Gillen, 2017, 2019)
We turn to discussing the findings of our second research question by considering how the sociocultural contexts of the children’s homes mediated their digital literacy practices along operational, cultural, critical and creative dimensions
Summary
Digitization permeates the everyday lives of many children across the Global North from a very early age (Chaudron, 2015; Danby et al, 2018; Kumpulainen et al, 2019; Suoninen, 2014). Research has documented how digital technologies and media reshape children’s free time, play and interactions and relationships with others, as well as how children discover and make sense of knowledge and themselves (Danby et al, 2018; Erstad et al, 2020; Fleer, 2018; Marsh et al, 2017). In the midst of these concerns, it is surprising how little is yet known about the ways in which young children use and interact with digital devices in their homes, and how these relate to their literacy practices and emergent literacy learning opportunities (Burnett and Daniels, 2015; Kumpulainen and Gillen, 2017, 2019). Home is typically the first context for children to experience digital technologies and media (Kervin et al, 2018; Ozturk and Ohi, 2019)
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