In the Loop Winter 2016

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Within Early Childhood Education and Care there has been longstanding advocacy of reflective practice as an important professional tool. The Early Years Learning Framework suggests it is so significant that alongside our commitment to continuing professional development, ongoing learning and reflective practice should be our guiding principles (2010, p. 13). Within this longstanding tradition there has been a significant shift away from private, individual self-reflection, and towards collaborative, collegial reflection. The idea of collaborative reflection wherein reflection is shared with colleagues in an ongoing process of dialogue – cultivating and supporting “communities of inquiry” – is a striking one, full of potential and possibility. In this field, planning and reflection have usually been private, invisible activities carried out in isolation and only displayed to validators and supervisors. So it is pretty ground-breaking to consider a process which instead foregrounds making meaning in relation with others (colleagues, children, families and other stakeholders): reflection as a sort of ongoing conversation and dialogue (Rinaldi 2006, p. 55). The current reality of our field (and broader context) is one in which we lack the resources and capacity for educators and services to dedicate significant amounts of time, energy and thought to collaborative reflection and professional dialogue. Services can’t afford to release educators from contact duties for appreciable amounts of time; educators don’t have the employment conditions which would enable them to engage in in-depth collaborative reflection; and the field as a whole lacks extensive experience in working collegially and critically. Given this reality, how can we construct systems which might enable sustainable and achievable collaborative reflection? It simply isn’t realistic to add new, intensive processes and systems into what is already an overloaded system without the provision of additional resources and support. What is possible, however, is to use what we are already doing in new ways, and to make some choices about what we value and prioritise. Can we make actual (reflective) practice, actual pedagogy, and the processes of reflection and dialogue visible and central? Can we make this our first priority, rather than an ideal aspiration, which more often than not comes to be seen as a utopian luxury which we both can’t afford and can’t hope to achieve? We can’t magically pluck time, money and other resources out of thin air. However, we can choose what we value, and where we put our energies. With this in mind, one simple yet powerful answer to these challenges lies in the use of pedagogical documentation. This is not just any use of documentation, nor any type of documentation. This is documentation (as informed by the theoretical perspectives and practices of Reggio Emilia among others) which is focused on small and particular moments of actual practice (Vecchi 2010, p. 134). It might include photos, words, work samples, learning stories or be couched in a range of formats, but it will be centrally concerned with the meaning of specific pedagogical events and experiences. This documentation is concerned with making actual pedagogical practice visible (and central), along with children’s actual learning and meaning-making strategies and processes. This type of pedagogical documentation has certain key characteristics which make it highly effective as a platform and a process for the double-barrelled nature of collaborative reflection. Firstly in terms of reflection, by making pedagogy visible it creates something to reflect on; all dialogue and conversation needs an actual subject. Secondly it makes it shareable. By creating artefacts of documentation (printed images, written stories, etc.) this visible pedagogy can be both portable and accessible. In this way, using some simple techniques, documentation can be incorporated into already existing workplace practices and processes in practical and achievable ways. The following scenarios suggest specific ways in which documentation can generate reflective dialogue in a range of settings: SCENARIO 1: A Family Day Care Home A coordinator arrives for her monthly visit at the home of a Family Day Care educator. As always there is an initial period of welcoming, greeting each other and the children, and the usual exchanges that are made in these encounters. There may be pieces of administration or paperwork that are dealt with, as well as the opportunity for the educator to “sound off”, to ask questions, to relay significant moments of “success” or current challenges and anxieties. A sensitive coordinator knows that no matter how small such matters might seem, this opportunity to talk and share is a valuable professional moment for an educator who can feel quite isolated for much of her professional life. Then, at some point during the visit the coordinator brings out a clutch of photos she had taken on her previous visit: eight images of two children working with play-dough at a table. The sequence of images, being taken from several angles and fairly close up, replay a very short moment out of the play-dough activity. Together the coordinator and educator look at the photos. Two of the images capture an interaction between the children, including the expression on their faces and their eye contact, which the coordinator points out. Other images portray close ups of their hands rolling the play-dough into balls. The educator notices how differently both children work with the balls. The sequence of photos shows how one stacks them on top of each other, and how the other child then imitates. The educator shares an insight from her knowledge of the two children and the dynamics and history of their relationship. The coordinator is struck by her perception and offers to sit and draft out a simple learning story – merely a short paragraph – that incorporates both this insight and the other meanings they have shared about these images. She spends some minutes doing this, and passes it onto the educator, who will later be able to use this in her planning journal. 14 IN THE LOOP
As the coordinator prepares to leave, she notices that three children are poring over a picture book on the sofa. As unobtrusively as possible, the coordinator snaps six or so images on her digital camera. The children clamour to see the images on playback which the coordinator shares with them. She comments on how much they seem to be enjoying the story and encourages them to return to it. She will take these images away with her to print out and reflect on, and return with them next visit to share with the educator as part of their ongoing reflective conversation. SCENARIO 2: A long day care centre – staff room In the staff room there is a lunch table with chairs. On the table, an educator has left a documentation journal open for colleagues to look at. While there is no set format to his journal, much of the documentation consists of in-depth pieces of documentation, which focus on specific and particular learning moments. The journal is open at a page which features three older infants playing at what seems to be a game of “peek a boo” and “Simon Says” with their own reflections into a mirror. As there are multiple images capturing this episode, it is easy for those who were not present at the encounter to see and understand the processes and strategies the children engaged with. Two educators are sitting at the table and as they casually glance at the photos they become intrigued. SCENARIO 3: An OSHC Service In an outside school hours care service, it is time for the semi-regular staff meeting. The first item on the agenda is the sharing of a piece of documentation. This is a regular item which occurs every meeting, and as curriculum (and curriculum reflection) is the number 1 priority at the service; at every meeting it is always the first item. Each meeting, one educator shares a piece of documentation they have put together. Today is Jane’s turn. She has brought along a large piece of display chart, in which a group of Year 5 girls have painted a mural to hang on the wall of the service. As well as bringing the mural to show the meeting, the educator has also brought a panel which shows, in photos and words, some of the process behind the making of the mural, including how the project got started as well as showing some of the techniques the girls used in the mural making process. One in particular involved them transferring a digital image onto the mural. This technique generates lots of questions on the part of the other educators, who can see some interesting possibilities. The educator involved explains how she had had to support the girls in this part of the process. Another educator questions her around how she had made decisions on when and how to intervene – how much to support and suggest, and when to stand back. Questions arise about how to know whether this might interfere with or alternatively extend and support the girls’ own creative and thinking processes and learnings. The discussion continues around the possible consequences of these actions, and the decisionmaking processes of educators. One wonders aloud, ‘I wonder what those children are thinking? Do you think they recognise their own reflections?’ The other says emphatically, ‘I don’t think babies at that stage are supposed to have a sense of their own self.’ The first replies that she doesn’t think there is a definitive answer to that and this leads both to wonder about the process by which infants come to recognise and think about who they are. One suddenly realises something: ‘Hey, they might not recognise themselves, but wouldn’t they see that the images of their friends are reflections: same clothes, faces, movements? That would have to get you thinking that the third reflection might be yourself!’ They then begin to consider more closely what might have been going through the children’s minds, the questions they may have asked and encountered, and also of what possibilities there might be for working with reflections and using mirrors with their own (older) age groups. SOME FINAL THOUGHTS FOR REFLECTION To develop and cultivate “communities of inquiry”, and to bring about a field characterised by a culture of collaborative, collegial, reciprocal dialogue and reflection requires a transformation in our usual and habitual ways of working. It requires resources, good faith, transparency and trust. It also requires a dismantling of our professional hierarchies and a willingness to share power with colleagues — especially educators: an acknowledgement of the professional capacity and value of all, whether a Family Day Care educator or university professor. Most of all it requires intention. Each of us can start where and wherever we are by making a choice about what we prioritise and value – to visualise and reflect on actual pedagogy, and to make it the centre of our professional conversations and concern. REFERENCES: DEEWR 2010. Early Years Learning Framework, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra. Dahlberg, G et al 1999. Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care, Routledge, London. Reggio Children/Project Zero 2001. Making Learning Visible, Reggio Children, Reggio Emilia. Rinaldi, C 2007. In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia, Routledge, London. Vecchi, V 2010. Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia, Routledge, London. WORKFORCE.ORG.AU 15
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