Singapore Preschool Teachers’ Attitude Towards Advertisements in Digital Media for use with Children

In early years’ educational settings, digital media is increasingly used as a teaching resource; however, researchers are concerned about advertising content that often accompanies learning material because some content is inappropriate for children. Few studies have explored this from a teacher’s perspective. This qualitative study aims to examine this phenomenon by exploring Singaporean preschool teachers’ attitudes towards advertisements in digital media. Adopting a multiple case study design, five teachers selected through purposive sampling were interviewed. The semi-structured interviews were conducted using Zoom video communications platform, due to COVID-19 pandemic constraints. Data was analysed using inductive and deductive coding in NVivo. Preliminary results from this study reveal that teachers are most concerned about the effects of advertising in their classroom; however, the teachers viewed some advertisements to be useful for children. They also have intentions and strategies to avoid unintended advertisements in digital media that they use in the classroom. The findings of this study inform policy makers and teacher training institutions interested in revising their policies or training related to the use of digital media in early childhood classrooms.