Early Childhood Practitioners’ Views on the Use of Technology with Young Children

This thesis examines the attitudes of early childhood practitioners regarding the use of technology with young children. The study utilised qualitative methods to investigate the range of attitudes that exist towards the use of technology with young children, as well as to explore the factors which have led to the practitioners’ attitudes. In phase one of the research, four focus groups with a total of twenty-two participants were held to begin to understand the range of attitudes that exist and to select participants for phase two. In phase two, ten participants were selected from the focus groups who represented the full range of attitudes expressed, from extremely negative at one end to extremely positive at the other. These ten participants engaged in in-depth interviews to explore their attitudes towards the use of technology with young children. Findings suggest that the attitudes of early childhood practitioners towards technology use with young children are more nuanced than simply positive or negative with a third category of ‘it depends on…’ attitudes emerging. A wide range of different factors, both extrinsic and intrinsic, have led to these attitudes; however, this thesis proposes that practitioners’ beliefs regarding technology as well as more existential beliefs, such as their pedagogical beliefs in the most appropriate approach to early childhood education and their belief in the importance and value of family life, are an extremely significant determinant of attitudes towards technology.