“I do not think it is difficult, but exciting and interesting”: Practicing Reggio Emilia Pedagogical Documentation in New Zealand

Abstract

The Reggio Emilia Approach is known as one of the best early childhood care and education approaches in the world and early childhood educators around the world have tried to implement this approach in their own countries, including New Zealand. One of the most prominent practices that the Reggio educators popularized is pedagogical documentation. However, it was never the Reggio educators‘ intention that other educators copy their methods without thinking about the appropriateness of using them in different places with different historical and cultural contexts. This thesis describes New Zealand educators‘ pedagogical documentation practices and the role professional development plays in this process. This qualitative study involved eight female early childhood educators who were working in early childhood centres and kindergartens. The majority of these participants were experienced and held leadership positions. They had extensive experience with the Reggio pedagogy and had been involved in a vast array of professional development programmes. The methods of data gathering included a mailed open-ended questionnaire and face-to-face semi-structured interviews. In general, the participants agreed that pedagogical documentation had brought many benefits. However, there appears to be a main difference in how Reggio Emilia and New Zealand early childhood educators implemented pedagogical documentation. Most of the participants did not use documentation to get multiple perspectives, which was one of the main purposes of documentation in the Reggio schools. There were also differences in how New Zealand educators implemented the Reggio Emilia Approach and pedagogical documentation. The participants who saw the Reggio Emilia Approach as an inspiration tended to use it as an extension to Te Whāriki and therefore used pedagogical documentation in addition to Learning Stories. These educators tended to document and discuss their documentation less often. Participants who used the Reggio Emilia Approach as the main educational approach adjusted it for the New Zealand context and tended to document and discuss their documentation more often. The participants‘ professional development also contributed to this difference of how educators perceived the Reggio Emilia Approach and practiced pedagogical documentation.