Re-thinking Professional Development: Positioning Educational Documentation as Everyday Professional Learning

Abstract

THE INTENT OF THIS PAPER is to explore the ways in which educational documentation—one of the many important key principles that challenge and sustain the educational theories and teaching practice of the Reggio Emilia Educational Project in Italy—supports the practice, principles and pedagogy of early years educators. In this particular context, documentation is positioned as both a strategy and a tool for examining the work of the individual and of the group, for both children and educators, with the aim of questioning the role documentation might play in supporting educators' professional learning. This commentary paper will examine the concept of documenting as a process that enables an educator's work to become visible and therefore support their evolving capacity as an educator, through ongoing reflective practice, as indicated in the Australian Early Years Learning Framework (DEEWR, 2009).