Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vad tidigare forskning har kommit fram till vad gäller möjligheter och begränsningar i arbetet med pedagogisk dokumentation i förhållande till kommunikation mellan barn och pedagoger och barns delaktighet. Syftet var även att synliggöra vilka etiska dilemman som uppstår, kopplat till barns delaktighet och kommunikationen mellan barn och pedagoger. För att besvara vårt syfte och frågeställningar har vi valt att göra en systematisk litteraturstudie som innebär att vi på ett systematiskt sätt har sökt efter vetenskapliga artiklar och avhandlingar inom vårt valda forskningsområde pedagogisk dokumentation och därefter genomfört en tematisk analys. Vårt resultat visar att pedagogisk dokumentation är ett mångfacetterat och komplext verktyg som kan tolkas på olika sätt beroende på pedagogernas förhållningssätt och perspektiv de utgår från. Pedagogisk dokumentation är ett verktyg som ska möjliggöra både för barns delaktighet och för kommunikation mellan barn och pedagog men vårt resultat visar dock att den kommunikation som sker mellan pedagoger och barn är målorienterad och strategisk, vilket i sin tur påverkar barns möjligheter att vara delaktiga. Trots att arbetet med pedagogisk dokumentation som ska utgå från barns intressen och där de är delaktiga i processen så sker inte detta i praktiken. Den kommunikation som uppstår mellan barn och pedagoger begränsar barnen då pedagogerna förhåller sig till ramarna inom det Reggio Emilia-inspirerade arbetssättet.

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)