The purpose of this literature review is to identify patterns and discuss key perspectives from empirical studies published during the last decade that explore how young children (birth to six years old) and teachers together engage with digital technologies in early childhood education and care institutions. An inductive thematic analysis results in five key perspectives: 1) digital play is real play; 2) disconnected contexts; 3) teachers’ knowledge and beliefs; 4) learning with and from technology; and 5) children as creators. The findings demonstrate the importance of defining digital technology in a broad way. Further, several of the articles highlight teachers’ reflections and judgements regarding how they can implement and embed digital technology into their pedagogical practice. Based on the findings, I suggest that a more explicit focus on digital technology be embedded into pedagogical practice in national ECEC curricula, as well as in national guidelines for EC teacher education.

Digital technology is a central part of young children’s everyday lives in most societies today. This paper contributes to current research by exploring two teachers’ pedagogical strategies when creating digital stories together with groups of six kindergarten children (age 4–5). The study has a qualitative, multiple-case study design. The analysis was performed inductively across the two cases. The findings show that when creating digital stories with young children, teachers’ various pedagogical strategies are equally important for the process and product: Inviting to dialogue, Explaining the practical, and Instructing for results. An encouraging tone characterises the teachers’ communication. The research findings contribute to knowledge of how teachers involve groups of children in technology-mediated story creation processes by highlighting the pedagogical perspectives when using digital technology.

This paper explores how digital competence and digital technology are addressed in Norwegian early childhood teacher education (ECTE). The aim is to provide a national overview of the ECTE institutions’ programme and relevant course plans to identify how the preservice teachers are being prepared for their future professional life as digitally competent early childhood teachers. We have conducted a summative content analysis of national regulations, national guidelines, programme and course plans by drawing on Goodlad et al.’s curriculum theory. The findings demonstrate that digital competence and digital technology are clearly emphasised and addressed at the ideological curriculum level but less so at the formal and perceived levels. Data shows that there is a need to define and operationalise professional digital competence from an ECTE perspective. Furthermore, there is a need to more explicitly describe the learning outcomes in the programme and course plans, focusing on both theoretical and practical aspects.

In most contemporary societies there is broad access to a range of digital technologies. However, in the current debate concerning digital technology in early childhood education and care institutions (ECEC), digital technologies are often referred to merely as screens. This paper contributes to the current research by exploring the technologymediated creation process when groups of young children (age 4-5) create multimodal digital stories in collaboration with a teacher. The theoretical perspectives informing the study are technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) and professional digital competence. The study is a qualitative multiple-case study with two cases. The empirical material consists of video observations of the creation processes, which have been analysed inductively. The analysis shows that recording sound and sharing are the most important for the children. Further, the technology-mediated creation process is characterised by a complex interplay of non-digital and digital activities in which the teachers' professional digital competence is an important factor.

Fokus i denne artikkelen er barnehagelærernes faglige, pedagogiske og teknologiske kompetanse når de involverer barnehagebarn i produksjon av digitale fortellinger. Vi tar utgangspunkt i en kvalitativ studie med en fortolkende fenomenologisk tilnærming. Fire barnehagelærere ble intervjuet om deres erfaring med å involvere barna i produksjon av digitale fortellinger. Funnene viser at barnehagelærerne framhever det pedagogiske og teknologiske på bekostning av det faglige i sin beskrivelse av hva de vektlegger når de lager digitale fortellinger i barnehagen. De legger i liten grad vekt på sin egen faglige fortellingskompetanse. Gjennom analyse av empirien, sett i lys av teori, konkretiserer og tydeliggjør vi det vi mener er sentralt i barnehagelærernes digitale fortellingskompetanse.In this article we focus on preschool teachers’ technological, pedagogical and content knowledge when they involve preschool children (0-6-year olds) in the production of digital stories in kindergartens. The article is based on a qualitative study, with a phenomenological research approach. Four preschool teachers have been interviewed about their competence and experience when involving preschool children in the production of digital stories. The findings show that they highlight pedagogical and technological knowledge, and hardly mention narrative. Based on theory and our findings we concretize the preschool teachers’ narrative competence, with the digital story as the medium.