Abstract:
This paper explores some of the issues for teachers in New Zealand / Aotearoa using
pedagogical documentation. My interest in pedagogical documentation developed
after visiting Sweden and Denmark as the 1996 recipient of the Margaret M.
Blackwell Travel Study Fellowship. To my surprise "Reggio Emilia inspired"
documentation was a prominent focus of discussion among many practitioners and
some administrators and academics. The surprise was because Reggio Emilia is in
Italy and I was in Scandinavia: a different cultural climate. My interest in pedagogical
documentation has also stemmed from my observations, as a professional
development facilitator, of stressed-out teachers collating extensive collections of
unreflective written child observations for unclear reasons. The third stimulus for this
paper developed from the first two, and was a small case study research project which
involved myself, as a researcher and a professional development facilitator, working
with four teachers in a childcare centre, over a six-month period. The professional
development focus was on the teachers' use of pedagogical documentation while the
research programme explored the teachers' understandings. This paper is, however,
broader than the research project. It is divided into five sections. The first three
sections review the literature, and the historical and current policy contexts of
documentation. Sections 4 and 5 describe the research project and present some
insights gained about teachers' use of documentation. The five sections are:
1. What is pedagogical documentation ?
2. Setting the scene: policy, history and culture
3. Interpretations and implications of the policy context
4. An action research project: Reflecting on some traditions and tools of pedagogical
documentation
5. Considerations and challenges for teachers using documentation.
