Questa tesi di dottorato ha come tema l'educazione infantile. Si dedica particolare attenzione al processo di documentazione pedagogica: Come si sceglie il documentato? Come vengono narrate, descritte, interpretate tali documentazioni? Quali sono le loro forme? Considerando i rapporti tra adulti e bambini piccoli, quali sono i fili che si intrecciano nella documentazione pedagogica? Cosa li lega? Cosa sostiene questo tessuto? A Pistoia, in Italia, si è studiato il quotidiano di quattro asili nido: Asilo Nido Lago Mago, Asilo Nido Il Faro, Asilo Nido Il Mulino, Asilo Nido il Grillo, nel periodo compreso tra novembre 2013 e maggio 2014. Attraverso le lenti teoriche di Walter Benjamin, si propone la deviazione come metodo e la collezione come forma. Si scommette sull'idea del professore come collezionista e sulla ricerca come una collezione. Educare e ricercare sono azioni diverse. Però in entrambe le azioni, trattasi di ricevere ed accogliere l'estraneo. Partendo da questa prospettiva etica, il diario di campo, le fotografie e le documentazioni ricercate si aprono in cinque collezioni. Il collezionista cerca frammenti, a suo parere, preziosi. Poi, li organizza, gli fa dialogare e offre una narrativa. L'osservazione, l'ascolto, la registrazione e l'interpretazione sostengono il processo di offrire visibilità alle esperienze dei bambini. Considerando le loro differenti forme e tipi, si sono cercati nelle documentazioni fili comuni: un'immagine di bambino attivo, con capacità per crescere e relazionarsi ed un contesto fisico, materiale e temporale potenzialmente ricco in esperienze. Questa tesi propone che per i bambini molto piccoli la documentazione pedagogica si costituisca come una narrazione peculiare. Trama che si fa con il filo del linguaggio materializzato nelle cose. Tramite la materialità delle "cose" il bambino "si fa parlare ed è parlato". Tra il visibile e l'invisibile, tra la voce e il silenzio emerge una ricca collezione. Piccoli incantamenti raccolti, inventati, narrati nel quotidiano. / A presente tese de Doutorado tem por tema a Educação Infantil. Por foco, o processo de documentação pedagógica: como se elege o documentado? Como são narradas, descritas, interpretadas, construídas tais documentações? Quais suas formas? Considerando as relações entre o adulto e o bebê, quais os fios que tramam a documentação pedagógica, o que os amarra? O que sustenta este tecido? Na cidade de Pistoia, na Itália, estudou-se o cotidiano de quatro creches: Asilo Nido Lago Mago, Asilo Nido Il Faro, Asilo Nido Il Mulino, Asilo Nido Il Grillo, no período de novembro de 2013 a maio de 2014. Através das lentes teóricas de Walter Benjamin, propõe-se o desvio como método e a coleção como forma. Aposta-se na ideia do professor como colecionador e na pesquisa como uma coleção. Educar e pesquisar são ações diferentes. Porém, em ambos, trata-se de receber e acolher o estranho. A partir desta perspectiva ética, o diário de campo, o registro fotográfico e as documentações pesquisadas abrem-se em cinco coleções. O colecionador caça fragmentos, ao seu olhar, preciosos. Após, organiza-os, permite-os conversar e oferece uma narrativa. A observação, a escuta, o registro e a interpretação sustentam o processo de oferecer visibilidade às experiências das crianças. Considerando suas diferentes formas e tipos, buscaram-se, nas documentações, fios comuns: uma imagem de criança ativa, com capacidade para crescer e se relacionar e um contexto físico, material e temporal potencialmente rico em experiência. A presente tese propõe que, para crianças bem pequenas, a documentação pedagógica constitui-se como uma narrativa peculiar. Trama que se dá pelo fio da linguagem plasmado nas coisas. Através da materialidade das “coisas”, a criança se faz falar e é falada. Entre o visível e o invisível, entre a voz e o silêncio, emerge uma rica coleção. Pequenos encantamentos colhidos, inventados, narrados no cotidiano. / This doctoral thesis is subject to early childhood education. The focus is the process of pedagogical documentation: How to elect documented? How are narrated, described, interpreted, constructed each documentation? What forms? Considering the relations between the adult and the baby, which wires plot pedagogical documentation, which ties them? What sustains this fabric? In Pistoia city in Italy, studied daily four nurseries: Asilo Nido Lago Mago, Asilo Nido Il Faro, Asilo Nido Il Mulino, Asilo Nido Il Grillo, from November 2013 to May 2014. Through the theoretical lenses of Walter Benajmin, it is proposed the deviation as a method and the collection as a shape. Bet on the idea of the teacher as collector and research as a collection. Educate and research are different actions. However, in both, it is to receive and welcome the stranger. From this ethical perspective, the field diary, the photographic record and researched documentation open into five collections. The collector hunting fragments, to your look, precious. After, organizes, makes them talk and offers a narrative. The observation, the listening, the recording and interpretation support the process of offering visibility for children's experiences. Considering its different forms and types, we search common threads in the documentation: an active child image, with capacity to grow and relate, and a physical context, material and temporal potentially rich in experience. This thesis proposes that for very young children pedagogical documentation is constituted as a peculiar narrative. Woof that is given by the thread of language shaped in things. Through materiliadade of "things", the child is speaking and is spoken. Between the visible and the invisible, between the voice and the silence emerges a rich collection. Small picked spells, invented, narrated daily.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur förskollärare använder systematiskt kvalitetsarbete som verktyg för att vidareutveckla verksamheten. Studien utgår från en kvalitativ metod, vi har använt oss av semistrukturerade intervjuer där öppna frågor ställts till sju förskollärare. Detta ledde till att förskollärarna gav sina personliga åsikter som svar på intervjufrågorna. Syftet med intervjuerna är att genom förskollärarnas personliga åsikter ta reda på hur de jobbar med det systematiska kvalitetsarbetet, hur de tänker kring det och om de i sitt arbete med det systematiska kvalitetsarbetet använder sig utav något verktyg. I Läroplanen för förskolan (LpFö18) finns det ett kapitel som handlar om hur de svenska förskolorna ska förhålla sig till att arbeta med det systematiska kvalitetsarbetet, det centrala i kapitlet är att förskolan ska följa olika steg, vilka är uppföljning, utvärdering och utveckling.   Resultatet visar att de olika förskolorna och förskollärarna har mer likheter i sitt arbetssätt och i sina tankar än vad det finns olikheter. I resultatet framkommer det också att de intervjuade förskollärarna ger liknande svar om hur viktigt det systematiska kvalitetsarbetet är för både barnen, verksamheten och de själva, det framgår också att de har ett positivt tänkande angående arbetet. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how preschool teachers use systematic quality work as a tool to further develop the business. The study is based on a qualitative method, we have used semi-structured interviews where open-ended questions are asked to seven preschool teachers. This led to the preschool teachers giving their personal opinions in response to the interview questions. The purpose of the interviews is to find out through the preschool teachers' personal opinions how they work with the systematic quality work, how they think about it and whether they use a tool in their work with the systematic quality work. In the Curriculum for preschool (LpFö18) there is a chapter that deals with how the Swedish preschools should relate to working with the systematic quality work, the central thing in the chapter is that the preschool should follow different steps, which are follow-up, evaluation and development. The results show that the different preschools and preschool teachers have more similarities in their way of working and in their thoughts than there are differences. The results also show that the interviewed preschool teachers give similar answers about how important the systematic quality work is for both the children, the business and themselves, it also appears that they have a positive thinking about the work.

The aim of the present study is to explore how children’s participation is constructed and enacted in preschool documentation and what kinds of activities evolve between teachers, children and material objects in preschool documentation practices. The study is based on videorecorded observations of teachers and children documenting different preschool activities in two preschool groups. The video observations are analysed using theoretical perspectives on power relations, governmentality, documentality and agentic realism. The results are presented in two research articles. The results show the complexity of children’s participation in preschool documentation practice. In the first article two different documentation methods, with different theoretical underpinnings, were used in the preschool: portfolio and pedagogical documentation. The results show that, regardless of documentation method, children’s participation varied from attendance to involvement and influence, which can be seen as two ends of a power relation. Power relations between teachers and children also varied between situations as well as within individual situations. The result of the second article shows that children’s participation in preschool documentation practices, as well as the documentation itself, was affected and controlled not only by the humans present, but also by different material agents, such as photos and colour-coded labels. Taking material agents into account allows for a broader understanding of documentation practices, which in turn could open up for new forms of children’s participation in preschool documentation. / Syftet med studien som utgör grunden för uppsatsen var att undersöka hur barns delaktighet i förskolans dokumentation är konstruerad och ”görs” och vilken typ av aktivitet som utvecklas mellan lärare, barn och materiella objekt inom förskolans dokumentationspraktik. Studien är baserad på videoinspelade observationer av lärare och barn som dokumenterar olika aktiviteter i förskolan på två förskoleavdelningar. Videoobservationerna analyserades med hjälp av teoretiska perspektiv på maktrelationer, governmentality, documentality och agentic realism. Resultatet presenteras i två vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultaten visar komplexiteten i barns delaktighet i förskolans dokumentationspraktik. I den första artikeln studerades användningen av två olika dokumentationsmetoder, med olika teoretiska underbyggnad, nämligen portfolio och pedagogisk dokumentation. Resultatet visar att barns delaktighet varierade från deltagande till medverkan och inflytande oavsett vilken dokumentationsmetod som användes. Detta kan ses som två ändpunkter av en maktrelation. Maktrelationer mellan lärare och barn varierade också mellan situationer och inom en situation. Resultatet av den andra artikeln visar att barns deltagande i förskolans dokumentationspraktik samt också dokumentationen i sig, påverkades och styrdes, inte enbart av de deltagande personerna, men också av olika materiella agenter, till exempel foton och färgade etiketter. Att även beakta materiella agenter innebär att förståelsen av dokumentationspraktiken kan vidgas, vilket i sin tur skulle kunna öppna upp för nya sätt för barn att vara delaktiga i förskolans dokumentationspraktik.

Nationella styrdokument poängterar vikten av att kartläggningar genomförs vid behov. Dessa kartläggningar bör ge en heltäckande bild av eleven och dennes skolsituation. Specialläraren förutses ha kunskap om denna process. Syftet med denna studie är att, med en diskurspsykologisk ansats, analysera och reflektera över hur bilden av eleven framställs i pedagogiska kartläggningar. Utgångspunkten för analysen tas i de begrepp inom diskurspsykologin som behandlar vilka mönster och positioner individer skapar och befinner sig i. Som metod har en kvalitativ dokumentanalys valts. Fokus ligger på hur bilden av eleven framställs. Denna bild har sedan tolkats genom vår uppfattning av de diskurspsykologiska begreppen: nodalpunkt, mästersignifikant, myter och tolkningsrepertoar. Materialet består av 10 kartläggningar från två skolor i Skåne. Dokumenten bearbetades i tre steg: ett första steg för att få en bild av dokumentens utformning och struktur, ett andra steg där innehållet kodas för att skönja mönster, och slutligen ett tredje steg där fokus ligger på att tolka innehållet utifrån de diskurspsykologiska begreppen. Resultatet redovisas genom att ett antal innehållsfrågor besvaras och sätts i relation till vår tolkning av de teoretiska begreppen och tidigare forskning. Slutsatsen blir att skolpersonalens diskurs blir den som skapar bilden av eleven. Vårdnadshavare och elev får en mer passiv roll i kartläggningarna. / National governing documents emphasize the importance of pedagogical documentation when necessary. These documents should provide a comprehensive picture of the student and his or her school situation. The special needs teacher is expected to have knowledge of this process. The purpose of this study is to, with a discourse psychological approach, analyze and reflect on how the image of the student is presented in pedagogical documents. The starting point for the analysis is in the concepts in discourse psychology that deal with the patterns and positions individuals create and find themselves in. The method chosen is a qualitative document analysis. The focalpoint of the analysis is how the image of the student is presented. This image has been interpreted through our perception of the discourse psychological concepts: nodal point, master significant, myths and interpretation repertoire. The analyzed material consists of 10 pedagogical documents collected from two schools in Skåne. The documents were processed in three steps: a first step to get an idea of the documents' design and structure, a second step where the content is coded to discern patterns, and finally a third step where the focalpoint is interpreting the content based on the discourse psychological concepts. The results are reported by answering a number of content questions and placing the answers in relation to our interpretation of the theoretical concepts and previous research. The conclusion is that the school staff's discourse becomes the one that creates the image of the student. Guardians and students are given a more passive role in the pedagogical documentation.

Syftet med den här studien är att bidra med kunskap om hur förskollärare kan utnyttja den fysiska miljön för att gynna barns lärande i kemi. Studiens resultat bygger på data insamlat av kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med nio förskollärare i två olika kommuner. Studien utgår från det teoretiska perspektivet Reggio Emilia med fokus på miljön som tredje pedagog och pedagogisk dokumentation. Resultatet visar att miljön har en betydelsefull del i arbetet med kemi i förskolan. Hur förskollärare väljer att utforma den fysiska miljön i förskolan kan ha en betydande roll för barnens lärande. Miljön kan ses som en tredje pedagog, där tillgängligt material kan skapa en nyfikenhet för barnen att utforska kemi i vardagen. Att använda sig av material och kemiska begrepp vid olika aktiviteter var något som samtliga förskollärare ansåg vara viktigt. Det framkom även att den pedagogiska dokumentationen i miljön ansågs vara betydelsefull för barnens möjlighet att reflektera och utmanas vidare i sitt lärande. Sammantaget kan förskollärarens roll i arbetet med kemi i förskolan ses som den viktigaste komponenten för att barnens lärande i kemi ska gynnas. / The purpose of this study is to increase knowledge about how the preschool teacher uses the physical environment to benefit children's learning in chemistry. The results of the study are based on data collected from qualitative semi-structured interviews with nine preschool teachers in two different municipalities. The study is based on the theoretical perspective Reggio Emilia with focus on the environment as a third educator and pedagogical documentation. The results show that the environment has a significant part in the work with chemistry in preschool. How preschool teachers choose to design the physical environment in preschool can play a significant role in children's learning. The environment can be seen as a third educator, where available material can create a curiosity for children to explore chemistry in everyday life. Using chemical concepts in various activities and materials was something that all preschool teachers considered important. It also emerged that the pedagogical documentation in the environment was considered important for the children's ability to reflect and be further challenged in their learning. Overall, the role of the preschool teacher’s work with chemistry can be seen as the most important component to benefit children's learning in chemistry.

How children create meaning in relation to their physical, social, and cultural worlds can be regarded as a central question, both within the traditional Swedish preschool discourse and within the Reggio Emilia philosophical approach to early childhood educa-tion. In the Reggio Emilia approach, the search for the meaning of life and of the self in life is seen as an essential human necessity (Rinaldi, 2006). In order to be able to capture the search for meaning, pedagogical documentation is recommended as a tool for making children’s learning processes visible and subject to col-lective interpretation and reflection. This documentation is regard-ed as a potential mediator between theory and practice (Dahlberg, Moss & Pence, 1999/2009). In the collective reflection on documentation, discourses about what can be interpreted as children’s meaning making are ex-pressed and negotiated. In turn, these discourses govern how chil-dren’s communicative expressions and actions are interpreted and understood. The different perspectives drawn upon in teachers’ in-terpretation and understanding of documentation produce differ-ent kinds of knowledge about how meaning is created. This may ultimately impact on the opportunities and spaces offered to chil-dren, both in terms of opportunities to act and communicate and in terms of the available ways “to be” in preschool practice.The aim of this study is to analyse the ways teachers talk about how children create meaning and signification in preschool prac-tice, within the context of working with pedagogical documentation. I use Norman Fairclough’s version of critical discourse analysis to discuss and analyse how teachers talk (realization and materializa-tion of discourse) in relation to social practice and educational policy context (Fairclough 1992; 2003; 2010). This contributes to the research field of early childhood education by providing a crit-ical and theoretical analysis of the transmission of philosophy and theory associated with the Reggio Emilia approach through work-ing with pedagogical documentation in a Swedish preschool set-ting. Fairclough’s analytical approach allows the way teachers talk about documentation to be understood as a dialectical lin-guistic realization of overall philosophical, theoretical, and politi-cal ideas and perspectives.The empirical data includes observations of teachers’ discussions of documentation from one preschool department with a Reggio Emilia approach in a larger municipality in southern Sweden. The empirical material consists of field notes and recorded audio. The ethical principles of the Swedish Research Council were kept in mind during data collection. Written consent was obtained from both the participating teachers and the parents whose children are featured in the documentation discussed. The analysis shows that in talking about how children make meaning in preschool practice, a discursive, and not always coher-ent, polyphony emerges. Ideas and discourses collide, are woven together, and are renegotiated. Three overarching themes emerge, which can be understood as reflecting different aspects of chil-dren's meaning making. The themes consist of talking about chil-dren’s interests, experiences, and meaning making in relation to the physical and social environment, materiality, and body. The children are described in diverse and sometimes contradictory ways. However, there is an evident overarching perception of the children as individually meaning making, interest driven, and with an ability to construct and evaluate their own knowledge and truth through an active, individual, and sensual experience of the world. Furthermore, the children are described as interacting with something more often than with someone. In this specific case, the emerging post-humanist or neo-materialist discourse seems to make the interpersonal interaction invisible. The docu-mentation also becomes a communicative link between teacher and child, which replaces communication and exchange of ideas in the immediacy of the moment.

The purpose of the study is to contribute knowledge about preschool teachers’ perceptions of systematic quality work, to contribute to a deeper understanding of preschool teachers’ perceptions of the work’s structure and implementation. Phenomenography has been used as a methodological framework. Semi-structured interviews were the study’s chosen data collection method, with a total of six preschool teachers’ participating. The preschool teachers’ perceptions have been further processed through a phenomenographic analysis model. The results showed that preschool teachers’ perceive that the systematic quality work is extensive but is considered to be meaningful for the preschool’s development. The preschool teachers’ also perceive that the prerequisites for the implementation of systematic quality work are important and refer to both internal and external factors. / Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om förskollärares uppfattningar av systematiskt kvalitetsarbete, för att bidra med en djupare förståelse för förskollärares uppfattningar av arbetets upplägg och genomförande. Som metodologiskt ramverk har fenomenografi använts. Semistrukturerade intervjuer var studiens valda datainsamlingsmetod, där totalt sex förskollärare deltog. Förskollärarnas uppfattningar har vidare bearbetats genom en fenomenografisk analysmodell. I resultatet framgick det att förskollärare uppfattar att systematiskt kvalitetsarbetet är omfattande men anses vara meningsfullt för förskolans utveckling. Förskollärarna uppfattar även att förutsättningar för genomförandet av systematiskt kvalitetsarbete är viktiga och syftar på både inre och yttre faktorer.

Den här uppsatsen använder essä som kvalitativ metod för att undersöka ett dilemma som utspelar sig i flera gestaltade berättelser utifrån mina egna erfarenheter. De beskriver de dokumentationskrav i förskolans läroplan som påverkar mig. Jag granskar där några av de svårigheter som jag har mött i dokumentationsarbetet som finns på förskolan, såsom svårigheten med att vara emotionellt närvarande med barnen, samtidigt som jag dokumenterar. Jag använder mig av den hermeneutiska cirkeln för att få en mer nyanserad bild av dilemmat. Syftet med den här essän är att undersöka pedagogens förhållningssätt till dokumentationsarbetet och hur det påverkar barnen. De frågor jag ställer i uppsatsen handlar om dokumentationens syfte, barns inflytande, det etiska förhållningssättet till barns livsvärldar och pedagogens närvaro i dokumentationsprocessen. Jag belyser frågeställningarna genom att lyfta den pedagogiska dokumentationen som grund för ett gemensamt reflektionsarbete, som också fokuserar på barns inflytande och medverkan. Jag reflekterar även över pedagogens etiska förhållningssätt i dokumentationsarbetet, barnens integritet och livsvärldar. Min uppsats kommer diskutera det maktutövande som den vuxne har utifrån sin position, se till omdömesförmågan och fronesis som pedagogen behöver för att förstå hur man ska handla klokt och se saker från flera perspektiv. Även pedagogens närvaro och praktiska kunskap i dokumentationssituationerna samt reflektionens nödvändighet för att förändra det egna förhållningssättet och möta barnen på ett klokt sätt i de dokumentationssituationer som uppkommer i förskolans vardag. / This paper uses essay as a qualitative method to investigate a dilemma which takes place in multiple portrayed stories based on my own experiences. These stories describe how the documentation requirements in the preschool curriculum affect me. I review some of the difficulties that I have experienced within the process of documentation at the preschool, such as the difficulty to be emotionally present with the children while simultaneously documenting. I rely on the hermeneutic circle to present a more nuanced picture of the dilemma. The purpose of this essay is to examine the preschool pedagogue´s approach to documentation and how it in turn affects the children. The questions I ask in this essay concern the purpose of documentation, the influence of the children, the ethical approach to children's life worlds and the presence of the preschool pedagogue in the documentation process. I will highlight the issues by raising pedagogical documentation as a common ground for reflection work, which also focuses on the influence and involvement of the child. I also reflect over the preschool pedagogue´s ethical approach to documentation work as well as the children's integrity and life worlds. My essay will discuss how adults exert power based on their position, view the ability to reflect and make use of fronesis which is needed for the preschool pedagogue to understand how to act wisely and see things from multiple perspectives. The pedagogue’s ability to be emotionally present with the children and ability to make use of practical experience with regard to documentation coupled with pedagogue’s ability to reflect over situations are necessary factors for reevaluating a pedagogical approach.

This study explored the diverse ways in which practitioners' roles manifest to develop pre-schoolers’ agency through learning for well-being in inner-city early childhood centres (ICECCs). Findings served as the foundation for a training programme for practitioners to develop pre-schoolers’ agency in South Africa. Various factors that have an impact on the development of pre-schoolers’ agency and ways in which preschoolers express agency were further explored through using the tool of pedagogical documentation. A conceptual framework was based on the Framework of Learning for Well-being, the Framework of Indigenous Well-being and the Reggio educational approach, which supports the notion that pre-schoolers can express themselves and influence their lifeworlds. Myself, three practitioners and nine pre-schoolers participated in the study. I made use of participatory action research (PAR) to generate qualitative data. The various data collection tools used were: Conversations with pre-schoolers; semi-structured interviews with practitioners; focus group interviews between myself and the practitioners; observations of circle time discussions; practitioners' open-ended questionnaires and self-reflective notes on fake Facebook pages; notes in my selfreflective journal; and documentation of pre-schoolers' four art projects. A manual thematic analysis of the data was done and feedback obtained during final interviews. Practitioners indicated the following insights into their practice during and upon completion of the research process: Discoveries of the capabilities of pre-schoolers to express agency; the need to ask more probing and open-ended questions; the importance of listening to pre-schoolers; an awareness of the diverse capabilities of preschoolers; and knowledge and understanding of the value of the tool of pedagogical documentation to make pre-schoolers' agency visible. Aspects that posed challenges were highlighted, such as lack of technology, time constraints, work load and concerns of parents over the academic performance of their children. Upon conclusion of the study the following recommendations were made: a new theme in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS); a module in Foundation Phase education on children's agency; a one-day workshop for practitioners to develop pre-schoolers' / Psychology of Education / Ph.D. (Psychology)