Digital transformation is reshaping the ways children learn, both inside and outside school. Yet their own perspectives on these rapidly evolving online and offline environments remain largely overlooked. Research in Childhood Studies and Children’s Rights Studies shows that children are social actors with agency whose lived experiences are essential to understanding educational challenges (Moody & Darbellay, 2019; Reynaert et al., 2009). Still, little is known about how Swiss primary school children navigate the boundaries between digital and physical learning, how they experience inequalities, and how school practices support or constrain their well-being, motivation and participation. The project addresses this gap by examining how children aged 9-12 perceive, interpret and sometimes subvert the digital and hybrid learning settings that structure their daily trajectories. It aligns with DEEP Flagship Challenge 1 by focusing on learning variability, digital transitions and the impact of structural factors.

The study adopts the Mosaic approach, a participatory, child-centred methodology combining visual, verbal and experiential tools (e.g., drawings, storytelling, observations, digital ethnography). These methods enable children to express their viewpoints in accessible, meaningful ways and generate a multifaceted understanding of their lived realities. The sample includes 40 children aged 9-12 from Switzerland, recruited through a randomised strategy ensuring diversity in socio-economic background and gender. The project benefits from synergies with the SNSF/Sinergia SEEBL21 project, which provides field access, shared methodological tools, ethical streamlining and interdisciplinary expertise (psychology, education, childhood studies, digital studies). Data analysis will explore how children’s experiences differ across contexts, how inequalities shape learning pathways and how children construct meaning across digital and physical spaces.

The project is expected to yield rich and context-aware insights into how children navigate online and offline learning, the obstacles they encounter, and the strategies they mobilise. It will document how school practices and digital tools influence their well-being, autonomy and participation, and how structural inequalities intersect with daily learning experiences. Findings will directly inform teachers, school leaders and policymakers by offering actionable, child-informed recommendations to design more inclusive, equitable and engaging learning environments. In the longer term, the results will serve as a basis for future comparative studies and for adapting the Mosaic approach to other age groups and educational contexts.

Literature

Reynaert, D., Bouverne-de Bie, M., & Vandevelde, S. (2009). A review of children’s rights literature since the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Childhood, 16(4), 518–534. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568209344270

Moody, Z., & Darbellay, F. (2019). Studying childhood, children, and their rights: The challenge of interdisciplinarity. Childhood, 26(1), 8–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568218798016