Thematic Teaching of Augmented Reality and Education for Sustainable Development in Preschool—The Importance of ‘Place’

Abstract

In this study, we report on a case study of two Swedish preschool teachers’ first experiences of teaching sustainable development goals through the innovative use of augmented reality. Their statements about thematic work, children’s agency, teachers’ perspective, and augmented reality were analysed qualitatively through a theoretical framework based on transduction and place. The innovative use of augmented reality related to the importance of children’s agency in their exploration of local places associated with sustainable development goals is elaborated on, especially with the value of treating augmented reality as a ‘what’, or content, in teaching before it can be used as a ‘how’, or tool, for teaching sustainable development. It is seen in this exploratory study that transducing meaning between different representations such as physical places and the sustainable development goals in augmented reality applications opens up fruitful discussions regarding, for example, democracy aspects and source criticism between children and preschool teachers. Results indicate that the introduction of augmented reality technology is also worth pursuing in early-year teaching.

Keywords

• preschool teachers
• sustainable development
• augmented reality
• transduction
• place