Children as Digital Citizens: Why Digital Judgement Belongs in Early Childhood Teacher Education

Guest pot by Margareth Eilifsen

Picture Credit: Bergsjø, et al., 2025

A digital society

Children grow up in a world where digital technologies are not separate from everyday life, but woven into play, communication, family practices, learning environments and social participation. In early childhood education, this raises an important professional question: how can kindergarten teachers support children’s rights, participation and developing judgement in a digital society?

My upcoming EECERA presentation addresses this question through an analysis of Norwegian policy documents for Early Childhood Teacher Education (ECTE). The presentation is situated within the topic area of values and value education, with a particular focus on professionalism and the role of pedagogues and educators. I examine how policy documents frame children as participants and rights holders, and how these understandings relate to children’s lives in a digital world.

Professional responsibility of children’s rights

The starting point for the study is a tension I see in teacher education and policy. Children’s rights to participation, co-responsibility and democratic involvement are strongly emphasized in Norwegian education legislation and in the values underpinning kindergarten. At the same time, these rights are not always explicitly connected to the digital conditions of contemporary childhood. If children are already living, playing and communicating in digitally mediated environments, then professional education must prepare future teachers to meet children there—not only technically, but ethically, pedagogically and democratically.

In this work, I use the concept of digital judgement to move beyond narrow understandings of digital competence as skills or tool use. Digital judgement includes the ability to act responsibly, critically and ethically in digital contexts. For young children, this cannot be reduced to individual decision-making. It must be understood as relational, cultural and situated. Children develop judgement through participation with others, through everyday encounters with values, norms and expectations, and through the ways adults make space for their voices and perspectives.

Methodologically, the study is based on a critical rhetorical document analysis of three key policy documents. Rather than evaluating individual teachers or institutions, I ask what political and educational policy requires of teacher education. What kinds of professional responsibilities are made visible? What remains implicit? And how are children’s rights and participation framed when the digital dimension of childhood is considered?

My broader work is concerned with higher education for kindergarten teachers and how teacher education can respond to emerging pedagogical and technological conditions. I am particularly interested in how educators can design structured, student-centred learning environments that support reflection, questioning and deep learning, including the use of AI chatbots as dialogic resources. This connects children’s digital citizenship with the broader responsibility of preparing future kindergarten teachers for pedagogical practice in a changing digital society.

Digital citizenship – a question of values

The importance of the EECERA presentation lies in making digital citizenship visible as a question of values. If digital practices are treated only as technical matters, teacher education risks overlooking central issues of democracy, participation, ethics and children’s rights. Conversely, if value education does not take account of the digital world children inhabit, it may fail to address important aspects of children’s everyday lives. Bringing these perspectives together can help strengthen professional language and responsibility in ECTE.

In my presentation, the audience can expect to hear more about how children’s digital citizenship is positioned in Norwegian policy, where there may be gaps between national ambitions and educational descriptions, and why future kindergarten teachers need opportunities to develop professional judgement about digital childhoods. I will also discuss how digital judgement can be understood as part of democratic formation and value education, rather than as an additional or separate topic.

Ultimately, this research is about how early childhood teacher education can remain responsive to the lives children actually live. Children are not future digital citizens; they are already participating in digital societies. The professional challenge is to ensure that kindergartens and teacher education support this participation in ways that are rights-based, ethically informed and pedagogically grounded.

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References and further reading

• Foss, S. K. (2018). Rhetorical criticism: Exploration and practice (5th ed.). Waveland Press.
• Madsen, S. S., O’Connor, J., Janeš, A., Klančar, A., Brito, R., Demeshkant, N., Konca, A. S., Krasin, S., Saure, H. I., Gjesdal, B., Ludgate, S., Jwaifell, M., Almuhtadi, R., & Thorvaldsen, S. (2023). International perspectives on the dynamics of pre-service early childhood teachers’ digital competences. Education Sciences, 13(7), Article 633.
• Ministry of Education and Research. (2017). Framework plan for kindergartens: Contents and tasks. Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training.
• Ministry of Education and Research. (2024). Det digitale (i) livet: Balansert oppvekst i skjermenes tid (NOU 2024: 20).
• Undheim, M., & Ploog, M. (2024). Digital competence and digital technology: A curriculum analysis of Norwegian early childhood teacher education. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 68(6), 1105–1120.
• United Nations. (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child.

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About the Author

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This contribution is one of a series of short blog posts by presenters who will be sharing their work at the upcoming annual conference in Funchal, Madeira. Any views expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official stance of their affiliated institution or EECERA.