SUMMARY
The outbreak of Covid-19 and consequent school closures created a considerable challenge for educational systems around the world. Many countries have shifted to online learning and other digital alternatives to ensure continuity in education. Within this global and historical context of the Covid?19 pandemic, the present study aimed to explore teachers’ attitudes towards the use of online learning for young children in Saudi Arabia. A total of 346 early childhood teachers were surveyed during school closures and the concomitant shift to online learning and teaching. The teachers who participated were recruited from public and private kindergartens and early childhood centers. The respondents completed a survey consisting of two scales developed for the purposes of this study. The first scale explored teachers’ general attitudes towards using online learning strategies with young children (10 items). The second scale explored teachers’ attitudes towards using online learning with young children based on their professional experience during the Covid-19 pandemic (10 items). The findings indicated that the majority of the respondents held positive attitudes about the use of online learning as an alternative to regular schooling. However, some beliefs varied among respondents, for example, whether online learning is developmentally and educationally appropriate for young children, and whether it creates or lacks a learning atmosphere. In addition, chi-square test results for both scales indicated statistically significant associations between teacher attitudes towards using online learning and years of teaching experience. However, no statistically significant associations were found for both scales between teacher attitudes and geographic area (urban/rural) or school type (public/private). Implications for teaching during and beyond the pandemic are discussed.https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.21.6.11