Pedagogical Documentation

This chapter discusses this documentation which differs in nature from the legal records and is characterised by a pedagogical style that allows the reader to share the educational experience authentically. In the contemporary debate, especially since the end of the last century and inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophical approach, all documentation concerning the education process is defined as pedagogical (Dahlberg et al., 1997). Pedagogical documentation is discussed as the recursive cycle of observation, design, action, assessment and of the documentation itself. In this sense, pedagogical documentation relies on specific competences possessed by practitioners, whose role is to observe and identify the essence of educational experience, to select the aspects that are core to understanding this experience and why it may be considered educational. This chapter will help you to understand: • pedagogical documentation as a multi-functional process within ECEC • the key characteristics and functions of pedagogical documentation • the main characteristics required by practitioners for developing high-quality pedagogical documentation • how pedagogical documentation can be used in EYFS.