This study explores a new model of an early childhood software and artificial intelligence (SW-AI) curriculum grounded in posthumanist philosophy. Traditional approaches to SW-AI education for young children have tended to instrumentalize technology u...
This study explores a new model of an early childhood software and artificial intelligence (SW-AI) curriculum grounded in posthumanist philosophy. Traditional approaches to SW-AI education for young children have tended to instrumentalize technology under the discourses of “readiness for the future” and “protection from harmful media,” often positioning children as passive users. In contrast, this study calls for a shift in perception, recognizing SW-AI as an affective actor in young children’s play and learning within the complex digital ecologies of everyday life. From the posthumanist perspective, learning is understood as emerging through relational entanglements among teachers, young children, and technology. Young children are thus reimagined as co-constructors of meaning through intra-active engagements with SW-AI. Accordingly, early childhood SW-AI curricula should move beyond fixed outcomes and instead be grounded in relationality, openness, and dynamic becoming. This study proposes a curriculum model that treats early childhood teachers, young children, and SW-AI as co-constitutive actors in curriculum-making, seeking both theoretical and practical possibilities for cultivating collaborative, co-existent modes of learning with SW-AI.