Pedagogical Positioning of Digital Technology in Childhood Literacy and Numeracy Instruction: A Qualitative Multi-Site Study in Indonesia

Although digital technology has become increasingly prevalent in early childhood education, particularly in literacy and numeracy instruction, existing research has focused primarily on adoption, attitudes, and effectiveness, leaving a limited empirical understanding of how digital technology is pedagogically positioned within everyday classroom practice. To address this gap, this qualitative multi-site study examines how early childhood teachers enact and regulate digital pedagogical strategies for literacy and numeracy instruction across diverse formal and non-formal early childhood education institutions in West Java, Indonesia. Drawing on classroom observations, instructional documents, and semi-structured interviews with 43 early childhood teachers, the study employed inductive thematic analysis to identify dominant pedagogical patterns shaping digital practice. The findings identify five interrelated patterns: the positioning of digital technology as an engagement-oriented instructional entry point; substitution-based digital use without pedagogical redesign; reliance on informal assessment and digital documentation; limited formal professional guidance alongside peer-based support; and emerging strategic needs for more pedagogically grounded digital instruction. Collectively, the findings demonstrate that teachers’ digital practices are shaped less by technological availability than by pedagogical judgment, developmental considerations, and institutional conditions. This results in digital tools being positioned as supportive, time-limited resources rather than as central drivers of literacy and numeracy learning. The study contributes theoretically by conceptualizing digital technology use as a form of pedagogical positioning within a bounded instructional ecology, and practically by identifying strategic gaps with implications for teacher education, institutional guidance, and policy development in early childhood digital literacy and numeracy instruction.