Integrating Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into Early Childhood Education (ECE): Challenges for preschool practitioners

Author(s):

Nada Mohammed Hammed Abuouf(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

16. ICT in Education and Training

Format:

Paper

Session Information

16 SES 06, ICT in Pre-school

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-11

15:30-17:00

Room:

DCONF - Conference Hall

Chair:

Johan van Braak

Contribution

This research study aims to investigate what lessons may be learnt from ICT integration approaches in the Saudi Arabian and Scottish ECE sectors. In particular, it takes into consideration teachers’ perspectives in order to explore some of the key factors that shape their attitudes to ICT, as well as appreciating how these attitudes affect varying integration levels of technology into the micro-system of the ECE playroom. Research into ICT integration in ECE is very limited in Saudi Arabia. This paper addresses this substantial knowledge gap through a collective case study approach to investigate the practice of ICT integration in both Saudi Arabian and Scottish ECE settings. In particular, it provides the first detailed picture of Saudi preschool teachers’ perspectives and attitudes towards ICT, with the capacity to inform present and future educational policy in ECE.

Calling upon Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory encourages a holistic approach given its consideration of the actors/ species and their interactions. It is employed in order to consider the hierarchial influences over preschool teachers’ use of ICT at the micro level (playroom) of the ecosystem. An ecological metaphor is used to describe the complexity of interactions between influential factors at the micro, meso and macro system levels.

Method

To address the study’s research questions a collective case study approach was employed: four in Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia and two in Scotland (between Glasgow City Council and East Dunbartonshire). As part of the research’s endorsement of a holistic approach, multiple research methods were used as a form of triangulation (questionnaire, semi-structured interview, playroom observation and documentary analysis) to investigate the situation and the actual status of ICT use in preschool settings. Furthermore, factors that influenced teachers’ ICT practices were explored. The research target community was practitioners in ECE settings including Head teachers, teachers and practitioners from both private and public preschools.

Expected Outcomes

Research findings indicate that practitioners in both locations hold a positive perspective on the importance of ICT integration into ECE. However, enthusiasm and positives attitudes do not always lead to high-levels of ICT integration and, in Saudi Arabia in particular, much of the integration is achieved in an informational, teacher-centred/ traditionalist manner, rather than encouraging child-centred, constructivist approaches. The journey to ICT integration in the Saudi ECE sector is at an initial, unstructured stage and observed attempts at integration are largely the result of the individual efforts of practitioners. In having a policy for ICT integration into ECE, Scotland is further down the road of ICT integration than Saudi. Investigating ICT integration in the Scottish preschool case studies provides examples of child-centred learning through ICT that suggest ways of integrating ICT fruitfully into the micro-level of the playroom. However in both contexts there exist similar factors that influence teachers’ approaches to integration at both the micro- and meso-levels (practitioner confidence, ICT based activities management skills). Practitioners in both contexts hope for the comprehensive improvement of ICT integration and there is a clear desire for an explicit educational policy for ICT in preschool education and for continuous teacher training.

References

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1995). ‘The Bio-ecological Model from a Life Course Perspective: Reflections of a participant observer’, in P. Moen, G. H. Elder & K. Lüscher (eds.) Examining Lives in Context: Perspectives on the ecology of human development. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. pp. 599-618. Ely, D. P. (1999). ‘Conditions that Facilitate the Implementation of Educational Technology Innovations’, Educational Technology, 38(6), pp. 23-26. Ertmer, P. & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. (2010). ‘Teacher Technology Change: How knowledge, confidence, beliefs, and culture intersect’, Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 42(3), pp. 255-284. Fullan, M. (2001). The Meaning of Educational Change, 3rd edn. London: Routledge/ Falmer. Tearle, P. (2004). ‘A Theoretical and Instrumental Framework for Implementing Change in ICT in Education’, Cambridge Journal of Education, 34(3), pp. 331-351. Zhao, Y. & Frank, K. A. (2003). ‘An Ecological Analysis of Factors Affecting Technology Use in Schools’, American Educational Research Journal, 40(4), pp. 807-840.

Author Information

Nada Mohammed Hammed Abuouf (presenting / submitting)

University of Glasgow

Educational Studies

Glasgow

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