Role of pedagogical documentation in early childhood in educational change

Introduction

Pedagogical documentation can be defined as all documentation that has pedagogy on its focus. The documentation may be thoughts of as content and pedagogy as process. According to the paper presented by Patricia T. Carolyn B., Lana K., (Supporting Imagination through Pedagogical Documentation) pedagogical documentation is defined to as about trying to see and understand what is going on in the pedagogical work and the child is capable of without any predetermine framework of expectations and norms. Pedagogical documentation therefore is a tool for mediating the understandings of both adults and children. The child in this case is seen as an equal participant with a voice and a right to be heard. Documentation starts with a purpose. It involves thoughtful collection and recording of events and experiences documentation requires conscious focus on what is happening as well as the opportunity to reflect on those happenings through shared reflection about the concept.

Notable in the contributions on pedagogical documentation is Reggio Emilia approach that was developed for municipal child care and education programs serving children below six. It is a cosmopolitan metropolis of 130000 people in the Emilia Romagna region of Northern Italy. The system has spawned a distinctive and innovative set of philosophical assumptions curriculum and pedagogy, method of preschool organization, and design environments, which, take as a unified whole has become known as Reggio Emilia approach. The approach requires that children be seen as competent, resourceful, curious, imaginative, inventive and possess a desire to interact and communicate with others.

The content of pedagogical documentation can include children’s work, photographs plans and drafts in progress, audio and video tape recordings of children and teachers in action, written transcriptions of children’s taped and spontaneous articulations, comments and interviews, and illustrations and children’s observations. Documentation may be publicly displayed and in this way stimulating memory and reflection in viewers. The biggest challenge for this is lack of sufficient wall space. The tools used to carry out the documentation process include cameras, audio and/or video recorders, computers and photocopiers and pen and paper. According to the paper presented by Sophie alcock 2000(pedagogical documentation: beyond observations) documentation process encompasses reflection discussion and action based on acknowledging diverse interpretations of the documentation products. Pedagogical documentation involves the development of shared understanding about children’s learning with a variety of stakeholder groups. It acknowledges and affirms the diversity of stakeholder groups understandings of worthwhile learning. The emphasis of pedagogical documentation is to understand the whole child in context, acknowledging a diversity of perspectives and interpretations. Teachers will therefore use a variety of technological tools as well as children own voiced ideas. The focus of this topic is to consider the role of pedagogical documentation in early childhood in relationship with the government policy and requirements on the same.

Research on alternative models on learning and teaching has shown improved educational achievement. The old and rigid methods used before have been known to be ineffective and the approach has change to the use of pedagogical documentation that has yielded more fruit when used. The policy makers are moving towards making policies that encourage pedagogical documentation and in the bid to improve preschool education curriculum has been changed in support of the same. Quality and efficiency in teaching has been emphasized and included in the policies in every government worldwide.

Role of pedagogical documentation in education change

Pedagogical documentation has been known to play a major role in the society. For one it helps open up possibilities for children’s imagination and deep engagement in their learning. Andrew L. 2006 (making your child smarter) state that documentation and displaying the children’s project work helps children to express, revisit, construct and reconstruct their feelings, ideas and understandings. The process of documentation has been known to make learning visible to the child and also makes visible the documenters perspectives, assumptions and constructions. Documentation has been known to provide evidence, open conversations, share experiences and provoke discussions. Documentation can play a significant role in supporting children’s development of resiliency. When children see documentation of their work, they see themselves as learners, and when it is shared with the parents, they develop an image of the child as being resilient and competent. A research done by Lynn Allardyce (Documentation Approach to Early Learning), 2009 found documentation to be useful in various ways. This included the fact that documentation was known to support group learning and that the children were able to learn many vital skills such as listening, debating, negotiation and compromise.

It has been known to be helpful in developing shared understandings of children within the social, historical and cultural contexts which influence their co-construction of learning, thinking and knowledge. Through an open sharing of pedagogical documentation, teachers, children and other stakeholders all become learners. All these become learners and researchers which break down the traditional boundaries between theory and practice. They are able to deepen their understanding and evaluate the work. By documenting children’s words and their own questions and by photographing learner’s encounters and revisiting the learning experience, pre-service teachers become aware of how the teaching and learning process occurs, and how their questioning strategies create responses in children. While documenting children’s learning processes, analyzing the documentation, revisiting and creating a documentation panel, the teachers are able to enhance their reflective thinking. The teachers are in a position to know their capability, knowledge and resourcefulness. Documentation also helps foster collaboration among children, parents and other adults.

Documentation is also used as a tool for mediating the understandings of children in their own diverse social, cultural and historical contexts. It is essential to record and reflect on past learning from multiple perspectives through multiple languages. This process ensures that present and future programs retain meaning and relevance to children’s learning

The use of pedagogical documentation to inform and communicate with a wide range of stakeholders can assist in the legitimation of early childhood education services by displaying the value of early childhood education to the wider community. All the citizens are able to see the value of quality early childhood programs in the public pedagogical documentation. The challenges to consider when using documentation to publicly demonstrate the value of quality early childhood education programs are how the documentation can inform multiple audiences, what learning is worth documenting and how it can best be documented. Good documentation demonstrates the value of engage learning experience and culturally relevant integrated projects and also shows the parents and the community on how they can support and encourage development in children

Pedagogical documentation has also been found out to be one of the ways that have helped teachers to find a way of framing the curriculum in terms of stories and to enter into a dialogue through documentation as a way to support deep engagement in their learning. According to the findings by Patricia T. Carolyn B., Lana K., (Supporting imagination through pedagogical documentation) was noted that through documentation it opened up possibilities in a curriculum that would engage children throughout the entire school year. The curriculum developed should include the importance of children’s participation in the learning, importance of imagination and fantasy among other crucial aspects. The educators are able to generate, test and refine theories through this documentation. As teachers engage in collaborative reflection, where outcomes are often in the form of collective understandings, they socially construct new knowledge as they investigate, reflect and represent children’s construction of knowledge. The teachers are able to generate hypothesis and interpretations of theories that can modify the initial, more general theories. Documentation therefore makes it possible to create new knowledge for both teachers and researchers

Implications of the policy context

The trend to introduce policies to raise the standards of service delivery in early years has been seen in many countries which have recognized the crucial nature of early development. In Singapore for example, to improve preschool education, the government has embraced the need for change by identifying needed policies related to preschool education. These changes require teachers to rethink their approach to learning and teaching. A tool proposed by the teachers to facilitate curriculum change has been the use of pedagogical documentation. This is according to the book written by Yvonne Yoke Yin Chan, 2010(Instituting Change in Early Childhood Education: Recent Developments in Singapore). One must focus on two arenas while constructing childhood policies. One is the focus on groups of government, officials and representatives of early childhood organizations who meet to discuss key issues in early childhood education policy and early childhood education policy documents and commentary produced in the recent past. It is vital that policy frameworks should support teaching and learning and that those rights should be established towards pedagogy

In the last decade, early childhood teachers in Australia have become increasingly aware of issues around the assessment of children learning and evaluation programs which has developed in response to policy initiatives such as the creation of an Education Review Office and the Statement of Desirable Objectives and Practices of 1990-1996. The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) has undertaken the Evaluation of Early Education and Care of Countries (ECEC) in a number of countries in order to support quality improvement in this field. For this number of workshops have been organized where exchanges takes places and policy developments are discussed and major issues or research interest explored. There has been the development and publication of official early childhood curriculum guidelines(Te Whaariki)The statement of desirable objectives and practices expresses the governments expectations for quality early childhood education and endorses the importance of both administrative and pedagogical documentation. The program is based on the idea that there should be deep respect for the life force of the universe, where everything is interconnected and a learning theory related to a Vygotskyan perspective with the social context as a forceful indicator for learning and development. In a government document(Quality inaction) the Ministry of Education p.6 2011 stated that the desirable objective and practices in relation to the curriculum are founded on two guiding principles; working in partnership with parents to promote and extend the learning and development of each child who attends or receives the service and to develop and implement a curriculum that assists all children to be competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body and spirit, spirit , secure in their sense of belonging and secure in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution in the society. These initiatives are a reflection of the political climate of accountability. There has been a growing prioritization on the policies to ensure that children are given care and education despite the differences that exist between and within countries. The Australian government, the state and territory governments have been working together to come up with national quality standard that will be applied to all long day care, family day care preschools and outside school hour care services. Its mandate will be to ensure the rights of children are paramount, are successful competent and are capable learners. Children will also be access equity, inclusion and diversity among other requirements. The educators must be qualified to offer the expected education requirements for every child. The report by Council of Australian Governments (National Quality Standard for Early Education and Care and School Age Care, 2009) documentation should be enhanced where there should be documentation of children’s writings, drawing painting and construction, photographs of projects and works in progress, transcripts of children’s comments and conversations about their experiences

The Australia government agenda for early childhood (Australian Government Deewr) 2011 website states that the agenda of the government is to provide the families with high quality, accessible and affordable integrated early childhood education and childcare. Pedagogical approach and documentation is in a large extent affected by lack of policy or lack of implementation of policies effectively.

The main challenge for these policies put in place is having a constraint of bureaucratic structures that disable functions moving more towards change in educational structures to function. Some government departments are so tied up that they are unable to provide the relevant services that are attractive to the community. The other challenge is lack of funding. Majority of staff are reported as to having insufficient fund to provide the resources necessary in teaching. The staff has no financial support and funding from the state is unreliable and unsustainable.

Conclusion

Issues about the constitution of learning environments of high quality in pre-school are central and   enormous research has been conducted in this area. There has been a shift from the rigid curriculum that is based on what the teachers know and the traditional philosophies on early childhood towards focusing on pedagogical thinking and documentation. The stakeholders have been known for a long time to use methods of teaching that have not focused on the needs of the child but rather the laid down curriculum for learning. Where pedagogical documentation has been used quality in early childhood education has prevailed.

Pedagogical documentation has enormous power. It has been seen to reach parents and families in ways unlike any other teaching method. Administrators have been seen to reallocate resources and develop support system based on a growing understanding of this way of learning. Policies being made are made to enhance documentation so that quality prevails in early childhood education. How much documentation is processed and shared and how much time spent on it will have to be determined by the philosophy of the program, the value placed by the teacher and the administrative support given to this process. It is all a journey. Documentation is useful in places where teachers are facing challenges. The goal should always be towards ensuring that the children learn and teachers become better to helping them. Structures should be set to support debate in pedagogy and policy and enable all parties, including parents to participate in it.

References

Dahlberg, G., Moss, P. &pence, (2011), Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care. Philadelphia, PA; Falmer Press, Taylor and Francis, Inc

Reggio children and project zero 2011, Making Learning Visible: children and individual group learners: Reggio Emilia, Italy: Reggio children

Hayden, J. (2000). “Policy development and changes on the Australian landscape: A historical perspective”. In J. Hayden (Ed.), Landscapes in early childhood education. (pp. 49-68). New York: Peter Lang.

Adamson, P. (2008)The child care transition: a league table of early childhood education and care in economically advanced countries. Innocenti Report Card, 8. Paris: UNICEF.

Bersani, Carol; Condit, Nancy; & Frazier, Becky. (2003). Thinking Together: Teachers, children and parents as researchers. Innovations in Early Education, 10(2), 5-12.
Fleet, Alma; Patterson, Catherine; & Robertson, Janet (Eds.),(2006). Insights Behind Early Childhood Pedagogical Documentation. Castle Hill, New South Wales: Pademelon Press.

Patricia T. Carolyn B., Lana K., 2010, Pedagogical Documentation (Supporting Imagination through Pedagogical Documentation)

Council of Australian Governments, 2009, National Quality Standards (National Quality Standard for Early Education and Care and School Age Care)

Patricia T. Carolyn B., Lana K., 2011 Pedagogical Documentation in Early Childhood (Supporting imagination through pedagogical documentation)