Documentation as a tool for participation in German early childhood education and care

Abstract

The aim of the study presented in this article is to find out whether the documentation practices in German early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres are compatible with the notion of participation by children. Children's participation has to be seen as a general educational issue in the context of democratic and inclusive education, but also as a specific aim to foster the learning and reflective competencies of the individual child. This makes it all the more important to know whether participation can be found in early childhood key practices – for example documentation. The research examines the documentation practices in 40 ECEC centres in Germany. On this basis, the article outlines what the main forms of documentation are (portfolio, documentation panels, presentations of children's work) and what importance children's participation has for these forms. It shows that participation is of minor relevance in the documentation practices in most of the ECEC centres examined. Only a few centres involve children extensively in documentation and include documentation in their daily work. If participation is part of the documentation practices, a ‘pedagogy of listening' as conceived by the Reggio approach can be found.

Keywords:

• pedagogical documentation
• participation
• Reggio approach
• democratic education

Acknowledgements

This study would not have been possible without the generous educators in the ECEC centres, who offered me insights in their work and their thinking. Sincere thanks go to all those involved for their openness and their time.

ORCID

Helen Knauf http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7690-6218

Additional information

Funding

The research has been funded by the Hesse State Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts and ‘Putting research into practice’, a joint initiative of the Universities of Applied Sciences in the state of Hesse.