Neoliberal technological devices and articulations of teaching young children: A case study of preservice teachers using iPads in their teacher education program

Abstract

The global shift toward neoliberalism continues to impact early childhood in numerous ways. One example of this shift is the push by education stakeholders for the incorporation of technology into the teaching of young children. Advocates contend implementing such technology in the classroom will increase children’s academic performance and provide them with the skills needed to attain well-paying jobs in the future. Such rhetoric creates a new set of challenges for early educators who seek to resist this neoliberal shift toward individualism and the framing of education as a process of learning, earning, and consuming. The case study examined in this article begins to address this issue by investigating how utilizing iPads in the process of becoming a teacher affected a sample of preservice teachers’ articulations of their roles as educators. Investigating and analyzing their experiences provides members of the early childhood community with steps they might take to assist early educators in framing their roles as teachers through democratic conceptions of practice that they can then implement within their early education context.