AI Pedagogies and AI Literacies for Early Childhood Education and Care

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into the daily lives of young children and their families and educators, generating growing interest in the role of AI within Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Yet research in this area has evolved so rapidly that conceptual distinctions are being blurred between AI in ECEC (the use of AI in children’s learning and teaching) and AI and ECEC (children’s learning about AI for safe and equitable participation in digital society). This paper presents a narrative review of literature published between 2020 and 2025 to theorize these two strands of inquiry. Drawing on critical constructivism, we conceptualize the field through the notion of technical code. In doing so, we propose that research focused on the application of AI in children’s learning is most usefully understood as AI Pedagogies and studies concerning children’s understanding of AI as AI Literacies . The analysis identifies that much current research on AI Pedagogies is under-theorized and predominantly technologically determinist, privileging skill acquisition over the cultural value of learning. Research on AI Literacies, while focused on children learning about AI, highlights the need for foundational inquiry into children’s developing understandings of artificiality, intelligence, data, and networks. The paper distinguishes and advances the fields of AI in ECEC via AI Pedagogies and AI and ECEC via AI Literacies, offering recommendations for more critically and culturally responsive research regarding young children’s encounters with AI into the future.