Remixing Historical Sound Archives with AI to Support Creative Inquiry in Early Childhood

This qualitative case study examines how artificial intelligence (AI)-enhanced musical play can foster creativity, cultural awareness, and historical inquiry in early childhood classrooms. Drawing on constructionist theory, culturally responsive pedagogy, and distributed creativity, this study explores preschool children’s engagement with Citizen DJ, an AI-supported digital remix platform that enables users to search, select, and remix public-domain historical audio. Over four weeks, fifteen four-year-old children participated in guided and child-directed remixing activities that emphasized playful exploration, inquiry, and multimodal meaning making rather than performance outcomes. Data sources included video recordings, field notes, educator reflective journals, semi-structured child interviews, and children’s original digital sound compositions. Analysis focused on children’s creative processes, sound selection patterns, and emerging cultural and historical dialogue. Findings indicate that children demonstrated originality and divergent thinking in their musical remixes, frequently drawing on spoken word, animal sounds, and archival recordings. Network analysis revealed fluid movement across thematic sound categories, while a cultural engagement heatmap highlighted sustained interaction with culturally meaningful audio, including folk music, nursery rhymes, and historical speech. These encounters often prompted children’s questions about sound origins, sparking conversations about culture, history, and identity. Educators reported increased confidence in integrating technology-enhanced music activities and described AI-supported remixing as an accessible entry point for inquiry-based, culturally responsive pedagogy. This study contributes to education research by illustrating how AI-driven tools can support developmentally appropriate, play-based engagement with cultural heritage, positioning young children as creative agents and meaning-makers. Implications are discussed for early childhood curriculum design, teacher education, and inclusive approaches to technology-enhanced learning.