Exploring digital transformation through pretend play in kindergarten

Abstract Digitalisation and the accompanying transformation processes, involving data, technology and people, are part of children's life and will shape their future. Competences, such as digital skills, as well as creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving are crucial to these transformation processes. In early childhood, these competences are essentially acquired through play, especially pretend play. The project ‘we play the future’ draws on the potential of pretend play to enable young children to be actively engaged in imagining themselves shaping digital transformation in the roles of inventors, developers and users. Drawing on an analysis of fields currently undergoing digital transformation, eight inputs for pretend play were developed to areas of digital transformation (eg, robotics, autonomous vehicles and Internet of things). Fifteen kindergarten teachers implemented the pretend play on digital transformation in their kindergarten after taking a half‐day introductory professional development course. The children's play was filmed and analysed using qualitative multimodal interaction analysis in order to examine the ways in which the pretend play encourages the exploration of digital transformation amongst the children. The results reveal the potential of pretend play for children to explore digital transformation and to acquire the digital competences needed in the future. Practitioner notes What is already known about this topic? Children integrate imaginative digital technology in their play. Guided pretend play is important for children's learning in kindergarten. What this paper adds Ideas for pretend play in kindergarten to enable children developing an understanding of digital transformation in a playful way The paper presents findings from video analysis which indicate that children are using competences needed for the digital future during pretend play Implications for practice Digital education should not just be focused on using and programming digital devices but include pretend play to explore digital transformation; through the inputs for pretend play suggested in the project, the kindergarten teachers support the children developing an understanding of digital technology. The inputs for pretend play enable children to develop competences such as technical and digital skills, as well as creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving.