Browsing by Author "Niemelä, Jere"

The importance of media education is continually growing in a world that is continually becoming more digital. In this world the skills of media literacy are an essential part of everyday life. This is why the education of teachers has to also match the media education needs of the field. The purpose of this study was to find out how students of early childhood education view the contents and importance if media education as well as how they perceived it as a part of their studies. The study was carried out by interviewing four students who had completed most of their studies. Only one of the interviewees had completed previous media education courses outside the mandatory university courses. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and then analyzed to find similarities and differences in regards to the research questions. Critical media literacy and safety skills were perceived as important parts of media literacy. Media education, both as planned whole and as small moments in day to day life, was perceived by the students as vitally important, because of the prevalence of media in modern society. The responsibility of the kindergarten was to carry out education based in facts and pedagogy, while trying to even out the differences coming from family backgrounds. The students felt like their media education skills were lacking and would’ve hoped for more media education in their studies. Clear goals and a picture of the whole of media education were left hazy during their time in the university and they mentioned that they were willing to study more media education later as well. Reaching competence in media education was thought to require personal interest and hobbies, on top of the mandatory courses. It would seem like the students of early childhood education think their studies don’t contain enough media education in regards to the importance of the subject, which has been noted in previous studies as well. A new, larger study could be conducted, after which the mandatory courses of early childhood education studies could be reassessed.