Inbetween Literacy Desirings and Following Commands: Rethinking Digitalization in Swedish Early Childhood Education

• Published in: Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 210 - 220
• Main Authors: Buskqvist, Ulf, Johansson, Emelie, Hermansson, Carina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Jaerfaella Routledge 2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Child Development; Childhood; Children; Classrooms; Computer Uses in Education; Curricula; Departments; Digital literacy; digitalization; Early Childhood Education; Early Childhood Teachers; Education policy; Educational Environment; Educational Objectives; Educational Policy; Educational Practices; Educational Work; Foreign Countries; Influence of Technology; Instructional Leadership; Interactive Video; Learning; Learning Processes; Literacy; National Curriculum; Pedagogiskt arbete; policy enactmen; policy enactment; Preschool Children; Preschool Curriculum; Preschool Education; Preschool Teachers; School Policy; School Space; Social Studies; socio- spatiality; Teachers; Theory Practice Relationship; Young Children; Sweden
• ISSN: 2002-0317; 2002-0317
• DOI: 10.1080/20020317.2023.2229021

This article is an empirically grounded contribution to the understanding of how digitalization in education is interpreted and made into being by actors in everyday lives, in this case children and teachers in Swedish early childhood education. The focus is on interactions in an early childhood classroom upon and around a digital interactive floor setting. Drawing on the theoretical concept of socio-spatiality, this literacy event is understood as an enactment of policy where both teacher and children become actors and subjects. Using observations and video recordings as a methodological approach, the study shows how the literacy event in the digital setting is enacted and constituted as a relational process between literacy desirings and education policy regarding digitalization. The authors suggest that engaging with both children's processes of literacy desirings and educational commands in ECE digital activities serves as a productive way to investigate how digitalization is enacted in contemporary ECE.