Abstract
In the revised Swedish national preschool curriculum the idea of educating children in four specific disciplines is formed as an interdisciplinary theme with an applied approach to STEM. Programming, as a form of applied mathematics and technology, is a growing feature in preschools today, but little is known from research about coding with young children (Mannila, 2017). This chapter presents an analysis of a case study of how teaching and learning programming in early childhood education is done and the analysis elaborates on gender aspects of this. Multimodality, as well as feminist poststructuralist perspectives, is considered relevant analytical tools in order to understand the interaction and communication going on in the sequences of teaching and learning on programming (Francis, 2002; Kress, 2003; Selander, 2017). The results of the analysis show both how programming creates great interest amongst the children, illustrated by children’s patience and willingness to follow the content of the sequences, and also how programming risks to become more boy-friendly in educational practice.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | STEM Education Across the Learning Continuum |
| Subtitle of host publication | Early Childhood to Senior Secondary |
| Editors | Amy MacDonald, Lena Danaia, Steve Murphy |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Pages | 29–44 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-981-15-2821-7 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-981-15-2820-0, 978-981-15-2823-1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 19 Feb 2020 |
| MoE publication type | A3 Part of a book or another research book |