Classified "A" by ANVUR in the fields 11/D1, 11/D2 Scientific in the field 14.
Abstract
Early childhood education has always experienced a creative tension between tradition and innovation, between the deep roots of a pedagogy attentive to body language, imagination and relationships, and the challenges posed by a rapidly changing society that increasingly hybridises spaces, times and tools of experience. In this complex landscape, the decision to dedicate issue 4 of QTimes – Journal of Education, Technology and Social Studies in 2025 to the theme “Play, learning and training: perspectives between analogue and digital in educational services for 0-6 year olds” stems from the awareness that play today provides a privileged lens through which to understand the changes taking place and, at the same time, to critically question the future directions of educational professionalism. The contributions collected in this issue of the Journal testify, on the one hand, to the vitality of research on play in early childhood education services; on the other hand, they show how play is becoming a terrain through which to read the pedagogical tensions of the present: the relationship between analogue and digital, the question of inclusion, the professionalisation of educators, the value of documentation and observation, and the design of meaningful learning environments.
