Barn och vårdnadshavares minnen av deltagande i pedagogisk dokumentation

The aim of the article is to contribute knowledge about pedagogical documentation with a focus on the importance of documentation from a democratic perspective, where children will be involved in the documentation work. The main focus is pedagogical documentation seen from the perspective of parents and children. Pedagogical documentation aims to highlight what the child is doing, as well as give parents and children the opportunity to have genuine influence through highlighting what is happening in the pedagogical activities (kindergarten). The research questions are: 1) What do children remember about their time in kindergarten? 2) What memories emerge in the children’s conversations about the documentation work? 3) What is stated in the parents’/guardians’ conversations about the documentation process?

The results show that the pedagogical documentation practice contributed to a community of practice in kindergarten, which in turn enabled democratic teaching.

The participating children in the study recalled that it was ‘normal’ to be documented, but that it was more fun when they were allowed to document things themselves. The researchers interpret this as meaning that the children were rarely allowed to participate in the documentation process and that they therefore remember when they were involved. The children remembered their time in kindergarten as being meaningful when they experienced a form of involvement in the activity. In addition, a form of intellectual freedom is described in that they recall experiences where they were allowed to participate in making choices themselves, or that their hypotheses were taken seriously and tested.

The documentation practice was perceived as meaningful and contributed to communication. In addition, parents recall that the documentation work helped provide good insight into what happened in pre-school.

A qualitative method in the form of focus conversations has been used in the study. The analysis is based on focus group data from children’s and parents’ conversations about memories from when the child attended kindergarten, based on documentation material from various kindergarten projects. The children who participated in the study were between 7 and 9 years old at the time of the study. The selection of children was made based on three aspects: 1) if the child frequently appeared in the documentation material that would form the basis for the study, 2) the child and the parents should have the opportunity to reflect critically on the documentation practice in the kindergarten, since the children no longer attended this kindergarten, and 3) the children who participated in the study must have participated in a one or two year long documentation project during their time in kindergarten when the child was 4 or 5 years old.

Alnervik, K., Öhmann, C., Lidén, E. & Nilsson, M. (2018). «Barn och vårdnadshavares minnen av deltagande i pedagogisk dokumentation». Journal for Nordic Early Childhood Education Research, 17(8):1-12.