Between protection and promotion – professionalisation in the field of early media education

The mediatisation of society is changing the way children grow up which is changing the demands placed on early childhood education and care. Learning with and about media makes an invaluable contribution towards familiarising children with our mediatised world. At the same time, it is also important to protect children from risks by giving them opportunities to interactncreatively, critically and constructively with media early childhood settings.
Education professionals at early childhood settings are thus faced with the challenge of undergoing training in the field of media education in order tonprovide the best possible pedagogical support to children growing up in a mediatised world. Media education also needs to be integrated into early
childhood education on an organisational level and to be understood as an important building block of the education system. This paper will briefly introduce the functions of early media education and explain what it means for the professionalisation of educators in the field