Pedagogical documentation in childhood education: a review of concepts

Documenting is a complex, dynamic process that is still difficult for early childhood educators today. It is more than describing and narrating the events, encompasses the selection, interpretation, reflection, and evaluation of them. It requires a close look from educators on all children and at all learning times, including moments of free exploration, and a reasoned reflection of practice in general. Consider the ideas of Malaguzzi, mentor of the Approach Reggio Emilia, systematically documenting the child learning processes offer memories to educators, children, and their families. It also acts as a starting point for new learning and allows educators to improve their practices through reflection. This study focuses on the in-depth reading of scientific articles by different authors, intending to understand the evolution of the pedagogical documentation concept, as well as knowing different current approaches to evaluation in education. It assumes a qualitative methodology, which aims to access the authors' conceptions through heuristic and hermeneutic processes. In this sense, the investigative process followed the following steps: (i) research and systematization of the relevant literature; (ii) organization of relevant texts on pedagogical documentation, in a diachronic way, to analyze the evolution of the concept in childhood education; (iii) collection of ideas for education, expressed by the authors, framing them historically; (iv) establishing relationships between the different designs. Pedagogical documentation is analyzed as a form of evaluation, with a relationship with the construction of participatory pedagogies. The data that emerged from the analysis revealed the importance of knowing the evolution of the concept of evaluation, to document the processes and integrate the right of participation into the institutions' daily practices. The importance of formative strategies that allow educators to understand their role in the construction of evaluation is reinforced. Strategies are also evidenced, including for children, to make visible the processes of documenting. It should be noted that this form of evaluation is based on a time-consuming but rewarding process, as it allows us to focus on the process and to show progress.This work has been supported by FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UIDB/05777/2020