Stakeholders’ attitudes toward digital transformation in early childhood education

This article aims to elucidate the perspectives of parents and educators regarding the digitization of early childhood education. Through an author-conducted study comprising two phases of semi-structured interviews with representatives of supplementary preschool education institutions in the Sverdlovsk region (2021: n = 15, 2023: n = 10) and parents (2023: n = 10), alongside an online survey of preschool teachers in the Sverdlovsk region (2023: n = 416), discrepancies in opinions among respondents concerning the impact of digital technologies on minors’ development were identified. Multimedia technologies are widely utilized in kindergartens, with the majority of teachers (90 %) expressing a positive attitude toward digitization. However, teachers in supplementary education possess greater autonomy in selecting programs and teaching methods and exhibit a more cautious approach toward digitization. Parents express concern about their children’s excessive consumption of digital content, but do not set the necessary restrictions on their own. The issue of fostering digital hygiene in children remains pertinent, necessitating joint efforts from all stakeholders in the educational process to mitigate the negative consequences of societal digitization.