Educational Management, Technology Integration, and Psychological Development in Early Childhood Education: Evidence from Kindergarten Practice

Abstract

Early childhood education is very important in terms of cognitive, socio-emotional, and psychological growth of children, specifically in the kindergarten setting. Although digital technologies are rapidly developing in the early childhood context, the current research concentrates mostly on educational management, technology integration, and psychological development as independent spheres. This fragmentation represents a research gap in the area of interaction of these dimensions in the whole of the real-life kindergarten practice, especially mediated by the educational management. To fill this gap, the research paper is an interdisciplinary synthesis of evidence on the relation between educational management practice, technology integration, and children's psychological development in kindergarten settings. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is carried out according to PRISMA principles, based on the peer-reviewed publications published during 2015-2025 and found in large academic databases. The inclusion criterion finds 16 studies that are analyzed by qualitative thematic synthesis. The results show that supportive and professional educational leadership serves as a key variable of developmentally appropriate technology integration and psychologically supportive learning conditions. When digital technologies are integrated into the practices of play-based and socially mediated pedagogies, favorable results in the involvement of children, their language development, and socio-emotional regulation can be realized. On the other hand, discontinuous administration enhances the danger of developmentally incorrect practice. The results highlight the necessity of combined management models, which will enable coordination of leadership, pedagogy, and technology to promote whole-child development in early childhood education. This paper suggests an interdisciplinary governance-leadership-technology-child developmental model that theorizes educational management as the moderating factor that mediates digital innovation with developmentally relevant and psychologically facilitative kindergarten practice.