This paper discusses findings from online surveys completed by parents of 0–3-year-old children in Norway, Portugal and Japan concerning their young children’s use of touchscreen technology. The study investigated parental practices, views and perspectives related to children’s digital practices and explored these in relation to wider cultural discourses around early childhood in the participant countries. The study adopted Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to inform the questionnaire and interpretative data analysis of how parents’ views and experiences are influenced by a wide range of social, cultural and personal factors. The findings demonstrate some coherence between beliefs among parents regarding very young children’s use of touchscreen technologies and their place in the children’s home lives. Quantitative and qualitative results highlight that the respondents from all countries expressed the need for further guidance regarding technology use, and better communication with early education and care centres. The study findings are discussed in relation to the reported uses of touchscreen technologies in the three different cultural contexts, parents’ views on the benefits and/or disadvantages of children’s touchscreen technology use, and the potential influences of dominant cultural discourses on parents’ perceptions, views and practices.

This book offers a fresh look at recent developments in policy, curricula and pedagogical discourse around children’s play with Internet of Toys (IoToys). By expanding the notion of digital and smart play perspectives in early childhood education, the authors critique and develop the broader subject area of IoToys play to better serve its end users. The book brings together research from across three different countries: Australia, Norway and England. It offers tangible examples of how one can use IoToys to build children’s social skills, emotional intelligence, sense of achievement, collaboration and aspects of STEM and design play thinking processes. The learning stories of children’s IoToys play will deliver a comprehensive review of how practitioners and parents can come together to build communities of practice for (re)enhancing children’s learning and growth using evolving technology-based play and engage in paradigmatic debates. Readers as a result will better appreciate the growth in pragmatic applications of technologies together with theoretical perspectives. The book will be a valuable resource for any academic or practitioner just beginning to understand the complexities and success stories of integrating IoToys for children’s playful learning.

The significance of family involvement in Early Childhood Education and Care has gained considerable attention within national reforms and regulations across various countries. This study aims to examine the early childhood education curriculum frameworks pertaining to family participation in Portugal and Norway. By analysing the national curriculum frameworks of these two countries, this study explores the distinct approaches they adopt towards family involvement in Early Childhood Education and Care, considering their unique cultural and policy contexts. Through content analysis of the curriculum frameworks from both nations, two primary themes emerge through coding: active involvement in the educational process and collaborative partnerships. The findings highlight the importance of fostering relationships between families and educational institutions to enhance children’s learning experiences and emphasize the necessity of ongoing communication and shared decision-making. Through an ecological perspective, this paper provides insights into how varying levels of family participation can influence educational practices and experiences in early childhood settings, suggesting potential improvements to strengthen partnerships between families and educators.

The aim of this article is to investigate ways that young children interact with touchscreen devices during museum visits and during the process of making a digital story in their kindergarten classrooms related to these visits. Drawing on children’s communicative embodied museum experiences and the notion of wayfaring and lines of movement, I discuss that digital stories become children’s visual lines of movement in time and place, and that through the process of making a digital story, children become digital wayfarers. Data include pictures, videos, children’s drawings and their digital story. In particular, I argue that this way back to the museum can be seen as children’s visual and digital ways of connecting with, interacting with and inhabiting the museum. This article gives insights on children as creative meaning makers, by looking at children’s perspectives and by exploring children’s visual lines of movement through their digital story.

This book examines innovative recent developments in curricula and pedagogical discourses around early childhood professionals’ digital competence development via professional development avenues. By expanding the notion of digital technologies integration teaching perspectives and educators’ practices in early childhood education, the authors not only conceptualise a professional development model, but also apply the model to bring together research across cultural contexts. Presenting findings from four cases, it offers research-informed tangible examples of teacher-centric professional development - one that inspires early childhood professionals, teacher educators and preservice teachers to use a variety of multimodal technologies within their repertoire of play-based practices (e.g., STEM-focused play for and with young children, teaching computational thinking). Case studies in this book are evidence of how practitioners can come together to build communities of practice to support their digital competence development as critical pedagogues and integrate a variety of evolving technology-based play (e.g., AI platforms), while engaging in paradigmatic debates. Readers will better appreciate the growth in pragmatic applications of technologies together with theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches. This will be a valuable resource for any academic or practitioner, whether beginning or expert, in understanding how digital competence development occurs through cultural learnings, is inclusive, not discipline- based, is holistic. In reframing early childhood professionals’ digital competence development as a naturalistic process, it will inspire educators to integrate a range of digital and multimodal technologies in their everyday practices. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->