Exploring kindergarten teachers’ beliefs of facilitators and barriers when utilising technology in teaching children: a qualitative study in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The integration of technology into kindergarten classrooms has been extensively studied worldwide, albeit from different perspectives and beliefs. However, there is a dearth of studies examining the use of technology in Saudi Arabia's early childhood classrooms. Thus, this study aimed to explore and provide a comprehensive understanding of Saudi kindergarten teachers' beliefs, perceptions, and practices concerning the use of technology to enhance children's educational development. To achieve this objective, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with female kindergarten teachers from five districts in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. These teachers were selected using a purposive sampling technique and had a minimum of three years of experience in using technology in their classrooms. In total, twenty interviews were conducted, and all transcripts were translated from Arabic to English using the backwards-forward translation technique. The data was analysed using thematic analysis, and NVivo software (version 12) was employed to organize and facilitate the themes. The findings reveal five main themes, eleven subthemes, and twenty-six sub-subthemes. The first theme pertains to teachers' beliefs that technology has the potential to benefit education and promote children's future development. The second theme highlights the challenges of fully integrating technology into the educational system due to technical limitations. The third theme discusses the accessibility of new technologies. Lastly, teachers emphasised the value of technology in promoting in-class preparation and effective communication with parents, which may enable the most optimal growth of children. Overall, the findings support the use of technology within the kindergarten phase and encourage policymakers to understand and address specific issues faced by teachers in the Saudi school system. The implementation of technology in classrooms will support children's learning and development and enable links between home and school, emphasising the significance of technological integration for educational advancement.