Nordic Childhoods in the Digital Age

Kristiina Kumpulainen is Professor of Education and Lead of the Nordic Research Network on Digital Childhoods, University of Helsinki, Finland and Associate Professor of Education, Simon Fraser University, Canada. Anu Kajamaa is Professor of Education (Continuous Learning) at the Faculty of Education, University of Oulu, Finland. Ola Erstad is Professor at the Department of Education, University of Oslo, Norway. Åsa Mäkitalo is Professor of Education at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Kirsten Drotner is Professor Emerita of media studies at the University of Southern Denmark, Denmark. Sólveig Jakobsdóttir is a Professor at the School of Education, University of Iceland, Iceland.

1. Introduction. PART I: NORDIC PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITAL CHILDHOODS. 2. Child development in a digital age: epistemic practices in media societies. 3. Nordic children, media, and technologies: a contested ensemble. 4. Transformations and unresolved tensions: children, school, and technology. 5. Bridging dichotomies between children, nature, and digital technologies. PART II: FORMS OF COMMUNICATION, LITERACY, AND LEARNING. 6. Young children initiating and negotiating their digital literacy practices in their homes. 7. Digital storymaking: a powerful pedagogic approach in the Swedish preschool class. 8. Digital language contact between Icelandic and English. 9. Ideation, playful learning, and making in a Minecraft Virtual Learning Makerspace. 10. Guns and dolls: preschool children’s (im)material Christmas list activities. 11. Finnish teachers’ leadership narratives in a school’s makerspace. PART III: CONCEPTIONS OF AGENCY AND ENGAGEMENT. 12. Young activists: engaging with global climate change in a networked society. 13. ‘I could smell the sound of winter’: children’s aesthetic experiences in their local forest through digital storying. 14. I hate little bits: the collaborative construction of children’s creative making in a public library makerspace. 15. Making digital play work: Danish children’s playful and creative production with digital media. 16. Rethinking boundaries: sociomaterial perspectives on digital technologies and early childhoods. PART IV: COMMENTARIES: INTERNATIONAL REFLECTIONS. 17. Digital childhoods as nexus of practice. 18. Nordic childhoods and entertainment ‘supersystems’ in the digital age. 19. Ethical provocations for early childhood research. 20. Conclusions.

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