Abstract
Extensive and controversial research discusses pedagogical documentation (PD) within early childhood education (ECE) uprising from different paradigms, serving various agendas of teachers’ pedagogies and professional development. However, literature converges in acknowledging PD as a fundamental tool for innovative pedagogies, making children’s and adults’ learning processes visible and open to reflection when co-constructing learning environments. We answer how ECE teachers’ online collective PD empowers place-conscious pedagogies and builds innovative learning environments in Chilean public ECE. From a posthumanist stance, this paper draws on an 18-month collaborative ethnographic immersion in Chile’s unique public ECE online PD community. It included 35 ECE teachers and 52 assistants, who produced 534 pedagogical documentation of 16 public kindergarten learning environments from 6 regions of the country. Findings show PD unfolds through a 4-moment-rhizome, where each moment makes visible pedagogies of place and the understanding of learning environments. This 4-moment-rhizome of the online PD involves 1) teachernalism of built environments; 2) onlookerism of children’s anecdotes in learning environments; 3) storytelling of children’s place-making, and 4) empowering pedagogies for co-creating learning environments. We show this online PD is a continuous professional learning space for ECE teachers, where they collectively grow place-conscious and empower their pedagogies based on children’s place-making. Concluding, teachers’ digital collective PD empowers pedagogies in Chilean public ECE. However, this unfolding PD sharply contrasts with the one serving the Chilean ECE agenda of pedagogical standardization and accountability.
Presenters
Cynthia AdlersteinAssociate Professor, Theory and Politics of Education, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Región Metropolitana de Santiago, Chile
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
New Digital Institutions and Spaces
KEYWORDS
Pedagogical documentation, Pedagogies of place, Learning envirionments, Chile, ECE teachers
