Early childhood teachers’ reflections on participating in a district-wide one-to-one device program

Abstract

This qualitative study explored how kindergarten teachers talked about their experiences implementing tablets in their classrooms as part of a district-wide one-to-one device initiative. Fourteen kindergarten teachers from six schools within a large urban school district shared their personal reflections and contributed to rich focus group conversations about the varied opportunities and challenges they had experienced. Data analyses highlighted two overarching themes illustrating teachers’ conversations around tablets: structural formats and perceived barriers and challenges they encountered. Within these two broad categories, we identify five major themes and provide a rich description of the teachers’ storied accounts. Results from our study provide evidence that large-scale device implementation in early childhood classrooms requires training and support that goes beyond how to use the devices themselves and develops teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK). Findings also suggest that developing a clear technology plan as well as identifying classroom resource needs are important steps in planning a large-scale one-to-one device initiative in early childhood classrooms.