Sweden and Poland see preschool documentation as a very important practice in Early Childhood Education and Care. Each country, however, conceives of this documentation differently. Reggio Emilia-inspired pedagogical documentation is one of the documentation practices used in Swedish preschools. There is very little research on the approach of Polish educators to this form of pedagogical documentation. Furthermore, the Swedish preschool curriculum is based on Social Pedagogy in contrast to the Polish preschool curriculum, which is based on Readiness for School. These curricular perspectives are underpinned by different views on children’s abilities and on the goal of preschool as an institution. This, in turn, reflects the relative differences in how democracy is viewed, and documentation maintained in these two countries. In this study, semi-structured interviews with four Polish preschool educators were conducted in order to document their understandings of the mentioned terms, as well as their perspectives on the forms and practices of documentation that they use. The participants were also asked about the possibility of adapting pedagogical documentation, as seen in Sweden, to the Polish preschool model. The findings showed, that the participants did not recognize Polish preschool system as democratic. What is more, the interviewees are not satisfied with the form of their preschool documentation. However, the interviews showed, that even though the teachers see value in pedagogical documentation, they do not see this approach as the appropriate one to adapt to Poland, due to the system malfunctions and reluctant co-workers. Lastly, the study shows that more research is needed to examine the relationship between documentation practices and the promotion and maintenance of democratic practices in preschool internationally, as well as suggests some changes in order to improve Polish documentation practices.

Sammanfattning Studiens syfte var att undersöka förskolans dokumentation utifrån relationen till barnet, verksamheten och det systematiska kvalitetsarbetet, samt hur detta relateras till utvärderingsarbetet. Syftet preciserade med följande frågeställningar: I vilken grad används olika underlag i förskolans systematiska kvalitetsarbete för att dokumentera? I vilken grad uppfattar förskolans lärare att det systematiska kvalitetsarbetet i dokumentation, utvärdering och analys utförs? Finns det några samband av förskolans lärares syn mellan utvärderingens analys till det konkreta utvecklingsarbetet?   Enkätundersökningen genomfördes genom att 14 förskolor besöktes och totalt 100 enkäter delades personligen ut till förskolans lärare, varav 78 besvarades. Enkäten bestod av olika påståenden utifrån syfte och frågeställningar, som förskolans lärare skulle ta ställning till. De statistiska analyser som används var univariat deskriptiv analys, ANOVA, multivariat variationsanalys faktoranalys. Studien utgår från ett postmodernt synsätt, där det förstås att det inte finns någon absolut kunskap i pedagogiska sammanhang, och där vår värld och kunskap kan ses som en socialt konstruerad process, där alla aktivt deltar. Resultatet visade att det underlag som förskolans lärare använder för dokumentation är verktyget ”foto” och att pedagogisk dokumentation ses som ett arbetsredskap, som synliggör förskolans verksamhet, och kunskapsområden. I resultatet framkommer även att utvärdering ger redskap för vad som behöver utvecklas för att höja kvaliteten. Dessutom visar studien att  det finns samband mellan analys och framtida utvecklingsområde, genom att mönster framträder, faktorer som påverkar förskolans arbete identifieras, vilket leder till att arbetsformer i förskolans verksamhet utvecklas. Vikten av att arbetet med pedagogisk dokumentation, utvärdering och analys genomförs framträder tydligt, genom att barnets utveckling och lärande framträder, men även verksamhetens framtida utvecklingsområde och förskolans lärares arbetssätt. / Abstract The study's purpose was to investigate the preschool documentation based on the relationship to the child, the business and the systematic quality work, and how this is related to the evaluation work. The purpose specified with the following questions:To what extent different basis in preschool systematic quality work to document? The degree to perceive the preschool teachers to the systematic quality work in the documentation, evaluation and analys is performed? Is there any relation of preschool teachers' views of evaluation analys is to the concrete development The survey was conducted by 14 pre-schools were visited and a total of 100 questionnaires were awarded personally distributed to pre-school teachers, of which 78 were answered. The questionnaire consisted of various claims on the basis of objective and issues that preschool teachers would take a stand. The statistic alanalyzes used were univariate descriptive analysis, ANOVA, multivariate analysis of variance factor analysis. The study is based on a postmodern approach, where it is understood that there is no absolute knowledge in the educational context, and where our world and knowledge can be seen as a socially constructed process, in which all participate actively. The results showed that the basis preschool teachers use the documentation tool is"photo" and educational documentation is seen as a work tool, which exposes preschool, and areas of knowledge. The result also suggests that the evaluation provides tools for what needs to be developed to raise the quality. In addition, the study shows that there is a connection between analysis and future development area, by pattern emerges, factors affecting preschool work identified, leading to the work of preschool development. The importance of the work on educational documentation, evaluation and analysis is carried out are clearly visible by the child's development and learning emerge, but also future business development area and the preschool teachers working.

Preschool documentation has been a recent topic in Sweden amongst preschool teachers, preschool managers, education policymakers, and researchers. Interest in this topic is driven in part by the 2010 revision of the Swedish preschool curriculum that introduced requirements concerning the use of documentation in follow-up, evaluation, and development activities in preschool. Of particular interest is the relative open-ended quality of the language describing the requirements in the curriculum as to how these documentation practices should be enacted. What kinds of documentation preschool teachers adopt and implement in their pedagogical practices is therefore a key question. Research by Vallberg-Roth (2012) has shown that some preschool teachers in Sweden document in a number of locally unique ways, in order to strive for curriculum-specific goals on one hand, and ensure child learning and development on the other. Learning and development can be described in terms of teacher’s competency rubrics proposed by Sheridan et al. (2011). These rubrics are analytic tools in preschool teachers’ documentation processes. This systematic review examines different kinds of documentation practices as they are described in selected articles and finds documentation types to include; pedagogical, systematic, teacher binders, and use of portfolios, as well as other techniques used by preschool teachers to document. This review implies that documentation is multi-faceted partly due to the uncertainty surrounding how to carry out its processes as well as the need to meet the individual needs of every child. In line with already defined competency types by Sheridan et al. (2011), which include knowing what and why, knowing how, and interactional, relational and transactional competences, the thesis also tentatively relates documentation types within the reviewed articles to teachers’ competency, thereby laying a possible foundation for the improvement of preschool teaching in Sweden.

The objective of the present study is to produce knowledge about how children, things, documents, computers, teachers, templates and other entities take part in and produce documentation in preschool systematic quality development work. The thesis asks questions about how and what is produced as quality in preschool documentation. Through a posthumanist agential realist approach, the study engages empirically in video recordings of preschool documentation practices from one Swedish preschool, and in documentation from four other Swedish preschools. The results, presented in four articles, show that documentation practice is complex and entangled with a variety of entities, human and non-human, and spaces and time. The study shows how children’s participation in production of documentation does not depend on which documentation method is used. In the study, objects such as computers, images and coloured labels, together with teachers’ attitudes and agendas, have an impact on the way that children are involved in producing documentation. The results also show that the products of documentation, intra-acting with a local template, with past and present preschool traditions and policies, produce rather than represent certain elements of quality such as teachers’ actions, children’s interests and thematic work. The thesis produces knowledge about how the focus of preschool documentation shifts away from individual children and towards teachers’ activities, and creates possibilities for what preschool practices and quality may become. / Syftet med föreliggande studie är att producera kunskap om hur barn, ting, dokument, datorer, lärare, mallar och andra entiteter deltar i och producerar dokumentation i förskolans systematiska kvalitetsarbete. I avhandlingen ställs frågor om hur och vad som produceras som kvalitet i dokumentation i förskolan. Utifrån det posthumanistiska perspektivet agentisk realism, skapas empiriskt material med hjälp av videoinspelningar från en svensk förskolas dokumentationspraktik och dokumentation från fyra andra svenska förskolor. Resultaten presenteras i fyra artiklar och visar att dokumentationspraktiken är komplex och sammanflätad med en mängd olika entiteter, mänskliga och icke-mänskliga, samt med plats och tid. Studien visar hur barns delaktighet i att producera dokumentation inte enbart styrs av den dokumentationsmetod som används. I studien har ting som datorer, bilder och färgade etiketter, tillsammans med lärarnas attityder och agendor, inverkan på det sätt som barn är delaktiga i att producera dokumentation. Resultaten visar också att dokumentationen, i intra-aktion med en lokal mall, med tidigare och rådande traditioner och styrdokument för förskolan, producerar snarare än representerar specifika aspekter av kvalitet, såsom förskollärares aktivitet, barns intressen och tematiskt arbete. Avhandlingen ger kunskap om hur fokus för dokumentation i förskolan förskjuts från enskilda barn mot förskollärares aktivitet, samtidigt som dokumentationen skapar nya möjligheter för vad förskolans verksamhet och kvalitet kan bli.