Sticky Dots and Lion Adventures Playing a Part in Preschool Documentation Practices.

This article examines how different entities (material agents), both human (children and adults) and material (computers, photographs, coloured-coded labels) interact with each other in connection with children's participation in preschool documentation practices.

The study shows how the concept of materiality plays a central role in the preschool’s documentation practices. The author describes the emergence of a complex interaction during the documentation process, in part between the teachers and children, and in part between people and material objects such as photographs and colour-coded labels. The manner in which teachers and children negotiate the different documentation products is conditional upon the photographs and colour-coded labels that the teachers use to evaluate the documentation. For example, teachers use different colour-coded labels as a categorisation tool to determine which curriculum goal was obtained during the activity being documented. While the teachers wanted to use the colour-coded labels in accordance with this purpose, the children gave the labels entirely different meanings and wanted, for example, many different coloured labels on each document. This shows that the labels are not merely inanimate objects; on the contrary, they are entities that take on their own life through the documentation process. In extension thereof, the author highlights the importance of preschools carefully considering which materials they use during the documentation process.

The article draws on data from two groups from a single preschool. The preschool was selected based on its particular focus on children's participation in the documentation process. The data material consists of video footage of the preschool’s documentation practices.

Pettersson, K.E. (2015). Sticky Dots and Lion Adventures Playing a Part in Preschool Documentation Practices. International Journal of Early Childhood 47(3), 443-460.