How pedagogical relations in early years settings are reconfigured by interactive touchscreens.

The study explores the use of touchscreens among two-year-olds in a multilingual kindergarten. The researchers compare how children and kindergarten teachers interact using screens and through traditional book reading. The goal is to understand how such screens can affect learning and interaction in kindergarten. The research questions are: 1) How do touchscreens change the interaction between children and kindergarten teachers? 2) How can screen use change the dynamics of the kindergarten's learning environment?

The results showed that the use of touchscreens led to changes in how children acted and interacted with kindergarten teachers. There was a distinct reduction in verbal communication, while the use of physical actions on the screen, such as touch and swiping, increased significantly. This created different dynamics in the pedagogical interactions. At the same time, the use of touch screens also affected the pedagogical tools of the screens themselves, and sometimes also their functionality. The study emphasises that kindergarten teachers adapt to these changes in order to effectively support children's learning.

The data material consists of observations conducted at a multilingual kindergarten in Stockholm, Sweden. In this kindergarten, nine two-year-olds participated together with two kindergarten teachers, and occasionally an assistant. The data material was collected through video recordings, field observations and photographs. After encoding and selection for analysis, seven shared interactive iPad sessions and nine book reading sessions were selected. These episodes were analysed to examine how the interaction between children and kindergarten teachers changed when they used iPads compared to books in the kindergarten learning environment.

Samuelsson, R., Price, S., & Jewitt, C. (2021). "How pedagogical relations in early years settings are reconfigured by interactive touchscreens". British Journal of Educational Technology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13152