The introduction of information technologies (IT) as agent of change has been pushed to educational practices. The ability to use and embed information technologies as an integral component of educational practices is increasingly considered an important qualification for educational institutions and teachers. Such extensive push of technological technologies, seems, has not transform educational practices in preschool and schools (Brown, Englehardt, & Mathers, 2016; Cuban, 2018; Player-Koro, 2013).

An increasing number of studies highlight the importance of developing pre-service teachers’ digital competences as significant factor in determining the future level of information technology use in teaching and learning practices (Bakir, 2015; Brown et al., 2016; Tondeur et al., 2011). The Swedish Higher Education act underline the integrating information technologies as an integral part of teacher education programs (Government Bill, 2009/10:89, 2017/03:17). The Swedish curriculum for preschool (2018), similarly, highlights the preschool teachers’ role in providing authentic opportunities to develop children’s digital skills. A number of measures including substantial level of investment on IT have, accordingly, been adopted to extend the integration of IT in teacher education programs. The qualified pre-service teachers are, thus, expected to demonstrate ability and competence to use information technologies in their educational practices (Government Bill, 2017/03:17).

 An increasing number of teacher education institutions are implementing a verity of approaches to enhance pre-service teachers’ digital competences (Tondeur, van Braak, Ertmer, Ottenbreit-Leftwich, & Development, 2017). The ways i.e. how well teacher education programs prepare new teachers’ digital competences are seen as one of the factors which defines the teacher education programs’ quality.

Preparing future teachers who know how to integrate and make use of IT in their teaching and learning practices remains a challenging goal for teacher education programs (Brown et al., 2016; Scherer, Tondeur, Siddiq, & Baran, 2018; Tondeur et al., 2012). It seems that many newly qualified teachers do not have the necessary skills to be able seamlessly woven information technologies into the teaching and learning practices (Chigona, 2015; Player-Koro, 2013). Davis (2010) and Tondeur et al. (2012) in their studies argue that promoting pre-service teachers’ digital competences are not firmly anchored in teacher-education programs. The findings of these studies reconfirm that pre-service teachers’ graduates are ill-prepared to use information technologies in their educational practices (Bakir, 2015; Jordan & Elsden-Clifton, 2017; Lund & Hauge, 2011; Player-Koro, 2013; Scherer et al., 2018). Little research, however, has focused on preparing early childhood preservice teachers’ digital competences.

This study, accordingly, aimed to examine the underlying challenges in terms of whether (and if so, how) pre-service early childhood teachers are prepared to use information technologies in their future educational practices. The research questions that guide this case study are (1) How do preservice teachers perceive their digital competences? How do pre-service teachers’ digital competences are processed during their teacher education program? and Which factors can challenge and contribute developing of the preservice teacher digital competences?