Dominant child development models emerge from Western contexts and inadequately capture developmental processes in African settings. Applying Nsamenang's social ontogenesis theory, this study explored how children's agency is fostered and expressed through culturally mediated practices in a Ghanaian kindergarten classroom. Using visual research methods to analyze teacher-student interactions, classroom practices, and cultural influences on participation, the findings reveal that child agency emerges through structured teaching strategies and guided participation. Agency in this context is relational and collective, with children developing competencies through meaningful contributions to the classroom community rather than individualistic self-expression. Children exercise agency within the boundaries of expected behaviors and moral norms through collectivist practices, respect for authority, spiritual and moral integration, and culturally appropriate gestural norms. This study demonstrates how Afrocentric frameworks reveal meaningful participation patterns that Western developmental models overlook or misinterpret, offering critical insights for culturally responsive pedagogy, teacher preparation, and broadening the theoretical foundations of early childhood education beyond Western frameworks.

In today's digital age, child-rearing presents unique challenges that extend across generations, impacting both parenting and grandparenting. This study investigated patterns of grandparents' attitudes toward their grandchildren's technology use and identified key predictors of these patterns. Utilizing latent profile analysis (LPA) with a sample of 712 grandparents from Shanghai, China, the research identified four distinct attitudinal profiles: positively supportive, cautiously observant, low-involvement reserved, highly concerned and restrictive. Multinomial logistic regression analyses revealed that the age of the grandparent, sibling status, and the frequency of communication between grandparents and parents were significant predictors of profile membership. The findings indicate that grandparents' attitudes toward their grandchildren's technology use reflect a combination of acceptance and concern. This study underscores the need for further research and educational supports to help grandparents develop perspectives informed by an evidence base, thereby strengthening guidance strategies for young children's digital engagement.

Research Findings: This study examines how early childhood teachers enact transformative digital agency (TDA) within technology integration in China. Drawing on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and semi-structured interviews with thirty teachers, the analysis identifies three key patterns. Teachers' use of technology was primarily oriented toward fulfilling top-down institutional demands or addressing immediate classroom challenges. Within these contexts, digital agency remained largely instrumental, with transformative use emerging only in limited cases where teachers reconfigured instructional roles, pedagogical practices, or divisions of labor, particularly in advanced digital and AI-related initiatives. Emergent transformative use arose between these poles: teachers recognized AI-induced changes but had not yet leveraged them for pedagogical transformation. Across cases, teachers' agency was shaped by sociocultural conditions, supported by perceived pedagogical affordances and professional community interactions, yet constrained by systemic tensions related to policy mandates and digital inequities. Practice or Policy: As one of the few empirical studies examining early childhood teachers' digital agency in a non-Western context, the findings underscore the need for professional learning designs that support teachers in navigating simultaneous pedagogical and technological shifts, including movement toward child-centered and AI-mediated practices, while also addressing structural constraints such as top-down initiatives and uneven access to digital resources.

This qualitative content analysis investigates how preservice teachers (PSTs) curate primary sources in early childhood and elementary social studies contexts, revealing the ideological implications of their instructional choices. Drawing on 347 selections submitted by 103 PSTs in a scaffolded, inquiry-based assignment, the study analyzes whether selections perpetuate dominant cultural narratives or reflect counternarratives and culturally sustaining practices. Findings indicate that while nearly half of all sources aligned with White, male, Eurocentric perspectives, a significant subset engaged historically marginalized voices, suggesting emergent but uneven commitments to inclusive representation. Selections varied in depth of reflection, often shaped by archival access, curricular constraints, and unexamined pedagogical habits. Grounded in Critical Educational Theory, Reflective Teaching Practices, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, the study highlights the ideological weight of source selection and the need for teacher preparation programs to scaffold reflective, justice-oriented engagement with historical materials. These findings contribute to ongoing conversations about equity, civic responsibility, and culturally responsive teaching in early social studies education.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, is transforming teacher professional development (PD) into a continuous, AI-mediated learning process. However, the effectiveness of AI-enhanced PD depends on teachers' readiness to engage with AI as a professional learning partner. This study develops and validates the preschool teachers' digital literacy scale as a diagnostic framework for assessing readiness for AI-enhanced PD among preschool teachers in China. Using data from 658 teachers nationwide, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a 5-D structure encompassing digital awareness, technical capability, pedagogical application, social responsibility, and PD orientation. Latent profile analysis identified three readiness groups-Emerging (13.37%), Progressing (46.20%), and Proficient (40.43%)-revealing a structural imbalance characterized by strong ethical awareness but comparatively weaker technological capability across profiles. The findings indicate that AI-enhanced PD should not be uniformly designed and instead requires differentiated, staged approaches aligned with teachers' readiness profiles. By positioning diagnostic profiling as an entry point for adaptive AI-supported PD design, this study offers scalable implications for early childhood education and AI-driven professional learning reform.

Background: Digital technology is increasingly being used in early childhood education; however, there is a significant gap in understanding how these technologies are practiced in health and safety routines. Objective: This study aims to understand the role of technologies in daily health and safety checks and identify the issues arising from their use in a Shanghai kindergarten. Method: A qualitative approach was employed; the study involved video analysis and semi-structured interviews with 8 teachers, 18 parents, 11 children, and 3 principals from a leading kindergarten in Shanghai. Data were analyzed using NVivo 12 to uncover themes related to technology use, human–technology interactions, and operational challenges. Results: The findings show that digital technologies enhance operational efficiency, but they also present challenges like usability issues and technical limitations. The study underscores the critical need for more child-friendly and educator-accessible designs to maximize the potential of these technologies. Conclusions: This study highlights the transformative potential of digital technologies in kindergarten health and safety routines. This insight contributes to a broader discourse on the benefits and complexities of digital transformation in early childhood education. Future research should focus on scalable, inclusive solutions and enhanced data governance to maximize the benefits of those tools in diverse educational settings.

With the proliferation of instructional technology development on a global scale, there has been a growing body of research examining the utilization and integration of various technologies in early childhood classrooms. However, limited research has specifically investigated the technology integration practices of Chinese early childhood teachers within the contemporary sociocultural context. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the intricate and dynamic interaction between culture and technology that shapes the technological and pedagogical practices of Chinese early childhood teachers. Data for this study were collected through a survey focused on technology integration from 283 early childhood teachers who participated in China’s national teacher training program. The collected data were analyzed using content analysis of participants’ narrative descriptions. The analysis revealed the influence of sociocultural values on teachers’ technological knowledge (TK), technological content knowledge (TCK), and technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK). The findings indicate that the Chinese government exerts significant control over schools, while teachers hold authority over students, in accordance with Chinese Confucian values. The results suggest that Chinese sociocultural traditions and values play a substantial role in shaping teachers’ technology integration practices. Furthermore, technology itself is emerging as a catalyst for cultural fusion within the contemporary Chinese educational system. This research sheds light on the complex interplay between culture and technology in Chinese early childhood classrooms, offering insights into the specific sociocultural factors that influence technology integration. The findings have implications for policymakers, educators, and researchers seeking to enhance technology integration practices in early childhood education. Additionally, the study underscores the need for continued exploration and understanding of the evolving relationship between culture, technology, and pedagogy in the context of early childhood education in China.

This article examines how young children express informed assent in research settings that incorporate digital tools, participatory methods, and play-based approaches. Drawing on data from three studies involving kindergarten and first-grade children (ages 5 to 7) in the southeastern United States, this cross-case analysis explores how children navigated their participation using multimodal and relational strategies. Conceptual play theory, social semiotics, and participatory research frameworks guided the analysis, emphasizing assent as an evolving, co-constructed process rather than a singular verbal agreement. Through video recordings, field notes, and action-oriented transcripts, we investigated how children expressed comfort, curiosity, and agency across diverse contexts—including virtual reality storytelling, video-cued reflection, and interactive eBooks. Findings illustrate that assent was negotiated through gesture, movement, silence, humor, and peer interaction, often extending beyond adult-defined research routines. Children reinterpreted their roles, shaped the pace of sessions, and co-constructed meaning through play and dialogue. This retrospective synthesis of three previously conducted studies offers practical and ethical insights for researchers working with young children, including the importance of ongoing assent checkpoints, developmentally appropriate explanations, and flexible research environments. We argue that ethical research with children must prioritize multimodal communication, child-led pacing, and relational trust to support authentic and meaningful participation. By reframing assent as a dynamic and multimodal process, this research contributes to emerging conversations about ethical responsiveness, agency, and inclusive practices in early childhood research.

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into education is reshaping how teachers teach and students learn. Rather than demolishing social studies education as we know it, AI is opening up new doors for educators to enrich instruction and engage students in meaning- ful ways. For teachers, AI has become a valuable tool for streamlin- ing lesson planning, grading, and curating resources, freeing up time to focus on instructional quality. For students, AI offers interactive tools that cultivate historical reasoning, promote media literacy, and foster civic understanding—critical components of social studies education. Platforms like TeacherServer exemplify the dual potential of AI, supporting both educators' professional needs and students' learning experiences.

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into early childhood education (ECE) presents transformative possibilities but raises urgent ethical challenges that demand immediate attention. This scoping review examines 42 studies to explore key ethical concerns in four interconnected areas: data privacy, impacts on child development, algorithmic bias, and regulatory frameworks. Findings reveal significant gaps in safeguarding children’s sensitive data, with inadequate protections against breaches, profiling, and misuse. Emotional AI tools, such as social robots and emotion-recognition technologies, offer novel learning opportunities but risk undermining relational learning and fostering overreliance, manipulation, or loss of autonomy. The lack of developmentally appropriate design in AI systems further exacerbates these risks, failing to align technological solutions with the unique needs of young learners. Algorithmic bias, driven by non-representative datasets, perpetuates systemic inequities, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities and eroding fairness. Regulatory frameworks are fragmented and inconsistent, often lacking provisions tailored to the vulnerabilities of children or mechanisms for global enforcement. To address these challenges, this study highlights the urgency of establishing global frameworks that prioritize transparency, data minimization, and cultural inclusivity. Engaging educators, parents, and children in participatory governance is essential to align AI design with developmental needs and uphold children’s rights. These findings underscore the need for immediate and sustained efforts to ensure that AI systems in ECE foster equitable and ethical learning environments, safeguarding the well-being of young learners while advancing innovation responsibly.

Research Findings: As artificial intelligence (AI) and technology-mediated tools become increasingly embedded in early learning environments, young children are navigating complex digital ecosystems with limited protections. Yet research on cybersafety has largely focused on adolescents, overlooking the distinct vulnerabilities and capacities of children aged 3 to 6. This study addresses that gap through a developmental-ecological lens to examine how young children and their caregivers perceive and respond to digital risks. Semi-structured interviews with 21 children, 25 early childhood educators, 23 parents, and 8 principals in Shanghai, China, revealed five interrelated categories of concern: cybersecurity threats, privacy violations, commercial exploitation, content-related exposure, and behavioral influences. Protective strategies identified by stakeholders included safeguarding personal information, enhancing digital literacy, and promoting healthy digital habits. Findings underscore young children's emerging agency and awareness in managing digital interactions, while highlighting the critical role of families, educators, and community institutions in scaffolding protective behaviors. Practice or Policy: The study calls for coordinated efforts across stakeholders and provides actionable recommendations, such as strengthening digital ecosystems, fostering family-school partnerships, and implementing educational campaigns to enhance digital safety. Importantly, including young children's voices offers valuable insights into how to balance protection with empowerment in AI-enabled and digital contexts.

Research Findings: This study examined the financial literacy of 5 and 6-year-old children in Shanghai, including their understanding of financial concepts and their preference for and ability to use digital payment methods. Using a mixed-methods research design, a sample of children ranging in age from 62 to 73 months completed multiple tasks to assess their financial literacy and participated in a semi-structured interview. The results suggested that most young Chinese children had a basic understanding of coins and their value, but there was variation in their perceptions of the need to provide change after making a payment. The majority of young children preferred to pay with digital devices and had a positive attitude toward mobile payments, although some children expressed concerns about their ability to use this method accurately. Practice or Policy: The study findings suggest that perceptions of financial literacy may vary across families from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. These results lay the groundwork for future digital financial literacy rating scales or behavior coding studies based on the initial findings of young children from middle-income families. The study also emphasizes the importance of providing formal and informal financial education to young children, particularly in regards to digital literacy, in order to prepare them for the future.

The landscape of education is dynamically evolving with the infusion of technology into classrooms, but it is not just math or science disciplines that are getting a digital makeover. Social studies education has entered a transformative phase as well. Amidst the rush to modernize curricula, an innovative approach in Virginia is channeling the power of computer science into social studies classrooms. The Computer Science for Social Studies project, funded by the National Science Foundation, proposes a groundbreak- ing model tailored for rural middle schools. This initiative aims to weave computer science into the fabric of social studies, rather than teaching it as an isolated skill, making both subjects more relevant, engaging, and beneficial for 21st-century students.

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in K-12 social studies education presents a complex blend of opportunities and challenges. This paper explores the transformative potential and ethical dilemmas of employing AI, particularly in engaging with historical primary sources. Utilizing a Delphi methodology, this study captures insights from social studies educators on AI's role in enhancing or complicating the teaching and learning process. The research reveals the transformative potential of AI to deepen historical understanding and empathy through innovative tools, yet it also underscores significant concerns about the accuracy, representation of historical events and figures, and the authenticity of educational content. This exploration presents the paradox inherent in educational AI: its ability to radically transform learning experiences with innovative tools while also threatening to obscure the distinction between historical accuracy and fabrication. The emerging capabilities of generative AI prompt vital questions concerning the legitimacy of information, trustworthiness, and authenticity in historical representation. We consider the implications of AI for pedagogy, emphasizing the need for instructional approaches that engage students in the critical analysis of complex influences shaping historical narratives and visual representations. The paper also addresses the role of AI in perpetuating or challenging historical narratives and biases. It underscores the importance of critical theory in social studies education to analyze the impact of synthetic media and conversational AI agents on students' perceptions of history. We emphasize the need for collaboration between educators, technologists, and historians to ensure that AI tools enrich the educational landscape without compromising the integrity and complexity of historical understanding.

This paper explores the intersection of early childhood education and AI, with a focus on promoting multimodal play. Drawing from implementation research in preschools, we explore the potential of an AI‐powered painting tool to foster historical imagery, creativity, and self‐expression. The findings demonstrate how technology can be used to democratize access to cultural heritage resources while enabling children's creative play centered on variation, improvisation, and human interaction. The human‐in‐the‐loop approach is crucial in aligning AI integration with early childhood pedagogy, ensuring that technology supports, rather than replaces, teachers' roles in the classroom. The paper highlights the importance of maintaining a human presence in the learning process to create educational experiences that are developmentally appropriate and transformative for young children.

Research Findings: This study aims to explore the optimal roles, pressing challenges, and future developments of ChatGPT in early childhood education (ECE) by interviewing six expert professors from China and the United States. A content analysis approach that combined inductive and deductive coding was employed to analyze the transcribed interviews. The findings of this study revealed two primary roles of ChatGPT in ECE: (1) conversational agent for young children and (2) on-call facilitator for educators and caregivers. The challenges and risks associated with ChatGPT were categorized using the "3A2S" framework, which includes Accessibility, Affordability, Accountability, Sustainability, and Social Justice. The participants suggest that as knowledge, information retrieval, and integration skills become less critical, human agency and inquiry ability become more important. As a result, they predict that ChatGPT's future trajectory should be as a resource for Intelligence Augmentation (IA) rather than as a replacement for the actions of educators and caregivers. Furthermore, AI opens new domains in ECE, such as AI literacy and AI social interaction, paving the way for novel opportunities and challenges in the field. Practice or Policy: This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on integrating AI technologies in ECE and offers valuable suggestions for policymakers, educators, and caregivers.

This study used a small stories research narrative paradigm to examine social media posts that focused on efforts to sustain the delivery of early childhood education during COVID. Inductive and deductive content analysis focused on 1303 posts from 177 government officials and 1126 individual users (including preschools, kindergartens, teachers, and parents). The results include an analysis of conversational data that document implementation of the national policy to promote continuity of young children’s learning, including digital resources used, learning content, and teaching approaches. Actor-centric contextual factors determined the success of delivering instruction remotely; however, other contextual components created the conditions that necessitated adaptation of instruction. The COVID outbreak (chrono-level) led to shifts in education delivery and informed national policy (macro-level), influenced the teachers’ and parents’ work contexts (exo-level), enhanced home-school collaboration (meso-level), and required implementation of technological solutions to support children’s learning (micro-level). Contributions to theory, methodology, and practice are discussed.

Early evidence suggests that robot programming offers an important foundation for spatial reasoning and computational thinking; however, researchers have debated how to introduce young children to these skills. We explored how preschoolers develop understanding of spatial concepts and computational thinking as the children took turns navigating a path during guided play with a programmable robot. Our analysis of the data included a multimodal visualization of the exchanges between the teacher, children, and a programmable robotic device. The findings highlight the effects that arose from the physical-digital convergence of technology integrated into play including: (a) the robot evoked a chain of actions, enacting pedagogic forces that transformed children's learning; (b) children used their own bodies as spatial referents, co-locating themselves in space with the robot; (c) the teacher remained a key actor, providing verbal and nonverbal scaffolding to promote children's understanding and mastery of spatial and computational concepts; and (d) talking with the teacher about spatial concepts combined with the interactions with the robot enhanced children's acquisition of spatial ideas relative to the quantity of children's verbal expressions and complexity of their applied spatial skills and computational thinking.