Video stimulated reflective dialogues: making meaning through entangled perspectives

The study aims to challenge the increasing focus on competency-based approaches to practitioner professional development; and explore the place of creativity in science enquiry in early years education. Schools as learning communities with opportunities for increased social capital through co-construction of better professional practice are well established (see, for example Spelman and Rohlwing 2013). However, evidence of successful professional development within learning communities in Early Years settings is rare (Thorton and Cherrington 2014). Wegerif’s (2014) assertion of Dialogic Space and Barad’s (2003) conceptualisation of performativity which challenges the focus on representations over matter itself inform the framework for this study. Within a New Materialist paradigm, the study draws on diffractive methodology (Barad 2007) and Video Stimulated Reflective Dialogues (VSRD) (Moyles et al, 2003) offering an alternative to competency models for professional development. A participative approach underpins data collection and analysis, and exploratory case study is utilised (Yin, 2009). 25 early years practitioners and a sample of 50 children aged from two to five years form three studies. Ethical protocol was framed using BERA Guidelines for Educational Research (2011). Particular attention was given to assent through attunement, to respect children’s right to withdraw. This paper will show how intra-actions between practitioners, video and researcher promoted collective critical reflection and facilitated sustained changes to practice. It will also demonstrate how VSRD led to shared understandings of pedagogy which supports early science enquiry. Professional development is not a reductive activity. Rather, practitioners engage in complex, multifarious processes to make-meaning and enact change