Pedagogical Documentation: Beyond Observations

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.