Pedagogisk dokumentation : En kvalitativ studie som beskriver hur utförande, utvärdering och presentation genomförs i praktiken

With the curriculum Lpfö98, and its revised version 2010, the demands for evaluation of the quality of the preschool have been emphasized. Accordingly, the activities need to be systematically documented, followed up and assessed, to be improved. Most importantly, this includes continuous follow up, documentation and analysis of the development and learning of the children. This is usually carried out by means of pedagogical documentation, but how this working tool should be used in practice is not totally clear for all pedagogues. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate how pedagogical documentation is performed, assessed and made accessible for the children, parents and staff-members, in practical preschool work. In the study, four pedagogues (two preschool teachers and two pedagogical mentors), working in two different preschools where the Reggio Emilia concept is practiced for pedagogical documentation, were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The informants described pedagogical documentation as a complex and time-consuming working tool, albeit necessary and helpful to fulfill the requirements of the curriculum. In one of the preschools, portfolios were used to collect and present the documentation, whereas the other preschool used a so called BUL-wall (Barn, Utveckling, Lärande, i.e., Children, Development, Learning). Both preschools carried out their systematic documentations preferentially as specific projects. The documentations were then used for dialogue and reflections with the colleagues and/or feed-back with the children; this is how the pedagogical documentation is formed, which allows the pedagogues to perceive the learning process of the children as well as their own. In this way, the pedagogical documentation forms the basis for evaluation and analysis of the preschool activities, and results in shared decisions for improvements to accomplish the children’s needs and challenges. From the findings in this study, it appears that different techniques for collecting and presenting the documentations may be feasible to attain the main objectives of the pedagogical documentation