Reconfiguring early childhood education and care: a sociomaterial analysis of IT appropriation

Authors

Melinda Plumb, University of WollongongFollow
Karlheinz Kautz, University of WollongongFollow

RIS ID

96873

Publication Details

Plumb, M. & Kautz, K. (2014). Reconfiguring early childhood education and care: a sociomaterial analysis of IT appropriation. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 446 30-47. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

Abstract

Existing studies of IT within early childhood education and care settings are scant, and those that do exist traditionally utilise a Cartesian world-view where humans and IT are separate self-sufficient entities with properties. In this worldview, change is attributed to either the technological or the human entity, leading to limited, either techno-centric or human-centred accounts of IT implementation and use. We reframe the activities in an early childhood organisation as a process of appropriation, and utilise a sociomaterial theory of technology appropriation alternative to the Cartesian worldview. We contribute a rich account of the changes that occur to the practices, the educators, and the technology itself during the appropriation process and demonstrate the theory's usefulness as an analytical tool for providing a deeper understanding of how early childhood educators appropriate a new technology into their practices in a sociomaterial, non-dualistic way.