Adult Mediation of Children's Engagements With Digital Technologies: Play, Learning, and Inequalities

• In Event: Structural Inequalities in Play, Creativity, and Learning With Digital Technologies

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
This paper addresses the topic of adult mediation of children’s technology play through analysis of qualitative case study data. Parental mediation practices are examined in relation to socioeconomic status.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

The roles of adults in facilitating playful learning through technology use are explored in relation to tools developed by the LEGO Foundation (Zosh et al., 2017; Jensen et al., 2019), in addition to previous research undertaken on parental mediation (Scott, 2018, Livingstone & Helsper (2008) and Zaman et al. (2016)).

Methods, techniques or modes of inquiry

Parents and children were interviewed and videoed. Parents filmed their children using technologies. The children used GoPro cameras to record their digital play. Children were also observed using technology in schools and community settings. The qualitative data were analysed using a deductive coding framework which drew on the LEGO Foundation Learning Through Play Experience Tool, in addition to previous research on parental mediation (Scott, 2018). Researchers additionally developed inductive codes that informed their analyses, in line with Braun and Clark’s (2006) thematic analysis.

Data sources, evidence, objects or materials

The paper is based in case study data collected with ten families in Sheffield, England. The analysis for this paper drew on parent and child interviews and video data of children’s engagements with technologies, generated by researchers, parents and children themselves. The analysis also drew on researcher observations of children in school and community settings and interviews with class teachers and community members.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions

Adults engaged with their children’s playful learning with technologies in a variety of productive ways. However, some adults were less likely to play digitally with their children than non-digitally. Moreover, adults were more likely to engage in co-play when using technologies when the focus for the activity was perceived to be explicitly ‘educational’ in nature, whereas families described a range of types of non-digital play, including outdoor sports, construction play (e.g. with LEGO) and the use of board games. Little of the digital co-play that was observed involved some of the more productive and creative uses of technology, such as coding, or making films and music.

Much research exploring socioeconomic inequalities in relation to digital technologies in childhood has highlighted differential access to, or ownership of, devices (e.g. Chaudron et al., 2015; Marsh et al., 2015). The present research offers insight into how parental mediation style, which differs in relation to socioeconomic status, may contribute to further inequalities. Whilst each of the families included in the UK research was unique, differences in parental mediation attitudes and strategies emerged in relation to socioeconomic status. These differences are explored in more detail.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

This paper raises questions about parental perceptions of ‘value’ in relation to supporting their children’s digital play and the role that socioeconomic differences play in how parents conceptualize children’s play with digital technologies. It discusses the potential scope to provide support for adults in engaging in more creative co-play.

Author

• Fiona Scott, The University of Sheffield