Don’t Ask Me Why: Preschool Teachers’ Knowledge in Technology as a Determinant of Leadership Behavior

Abstract

In the Swedish preschool curriculum, technology education is emphasized as one of the most significant pedagogical areas. Particularly, the teacher's role is emphasized: It is the preschool teacher's responsibility to stimulate and challenge children's interest in science and technology. Unfortunately, prior research indicates that preschool teachers feel uncertain about what technology is and the extent of their knowledge on the topic. Based on the path-goal theory, this article will explore how preschool teachers' knowledge of technology influence how they act toward children in different learning activities. Using a qualitative research design, this study collected data comprising 15 interviews with preschool teachers. The result provide insights for how teachers limited knowledge in technology influence their leadership behavior toward children both in planned activities initiated by teachers and in unplanned activities initiated by children during free play. The core of how teachers' knowledge in technology influences their leadership behavior in these two types of activities is their ability to deal with children's why questions. The results also show that a compensatory approach becomes evident in teachers' leadership behavior toward children in planned activities and that an avoidance approach is evident in unplanned activities. Our findings suggest that the development of a problemsolving approach in unplanned activities could enable teachers to create learning environments for children in which technology becomes something natural. Moreover, enhanced knowledge and understanding of technology will in turn make teachers better able to explain and clarify concepts and various technical phenomena.

XVIII IOSTE Symposium : Book of Proceedings

“…It is clear from the differences between Figure 1 and Figure 2 that there is a gap in the participating preschool teachers' descriptions of technology and the practices involving technology with the children. In contrast to previous research (Öqvist & Högström, 2018), in their general description of technology the preschool teachers do not emphasise the application of artefacts as technology. However, these categories are prominent in the preschool activities.…”

“…If a different group of preschool teachers, including less technologically interested staff, had answered the questionnaire, the result may have been different. The reason for suggesting this is that earlier research has shown that, in general, preschool teachers' knowledge of technology is relatively limited and that they also are aware of that (Elvstrand et al, 2018;Öqvist, & Högström, 2018).…”

“…faces a challenge in that teachers' concepts of technology have proved to be narrow, because they either describe it as computers and other electrical devices (Öqvist & Högström, 2018) or include everything, thereby rendering the concept fuzzy and difficult to grasp (Elvstrand, Hallström, & Hellberg, 2018). While technology is often described by preschool teachers as artefacts, or as everything, preschool technology education has been shown to consist of primarily construction activities (Elvstrand et al, 2018;Skolinspektionen, 2012Skolinspektionen, , 2017.…”

Children’s interactions with technology in teachers’ self-reported activities in Sweden’s preschools

“…The results regarding preschool teachers' apprehensions show a narrow view of technology as being related to computers and a more developed view as problem solving (Öqvist and Högström 2018) and that technology can be everything (Elvstrand et al 2018) and has been categorised in an overall system (Sundqvist 2016). However, the fact that preschool teachers have a developed view of technology does not necessarily mean that this is shared by the children.…”

“…child minders or preschool teachers) interpret the concept of technology and the kind of activities that are related to it in the preschool setting (e.g. Elvstrand et al 2018;Sundqvist 2016;Sundqvist et al 2018;Öqvist and Högström 2018). This focus stems from the change in the Swedish preschool curriculum, as described above (The Swedish National Agency for Education 2016).…”