Pedagogical documentation and narration make visible, legible, and sharable trails of children’s learning, which becomes tangible materials that can be shared and further interpreted by others (Hewes et al., 2019). These materials do not have to be concrete, as they can grow and change along with the child as their learning develops further. It fosters collaborative thought and interpretation; an ongoing conversation about what we are learning and experiencing. Through this, educators critically examine their own engagement with their pedagogical values and commitments (ECPC, 2020). This also supports public engagement and reinforces our desire to have children connect to the community they live and learn in.
The practice of pedagogical documentation and narration creates opportunities for educators, children, families and communities to be active participants in meaning making and curriculum development (ECPC, 2020). This brings back my pedagogical concern because where do we leave children with APD in the meaning making process? We are trying to support equity and democracy in the classroom. Children must remain active participants in their own education if we are trying to teach them about autonomy and agency. Educators are trying to bring about this transformative change, we need to ensure all children can access that same information, the same experiences, and the same opportunity to make meaning from them.
Educators should have the desire to innovate and experiment, the willingness to be perceptive and receptive to the opportunities to make meaning out of everyday occurrences if they want to instill that same level of engagement in the children they work with (Moss, 2014). By having the courage to hope for a better world, requires the knowledge and desire to help children with any learning disorder.
Do you believe pedagogical documentation/narration could benefit a child with APD in meaning making?
Early Childhood Pedagogies Collaboratory. (2020, December 1). Conditions for moving beyond “quality” in Canadian early childhood education: An occasional paper.
Childcare Resource and Research Unit. https://tinyurl.com/4nysxrux
Hewes, J., Lirette, P., Makovichuk, L., & McCarron, R. (2019). Animating a curriculum framework through educator co-inquiry: Co-learning, co-researching, and
co-imagining possibilities. Journal of Childhood Studies, 44(1), 37-49).
Moss, P. (2014). Telling stories, transformative change and real utopias. In Transformative change in real utopias in early childhood education: A story of democracy,
experimentation and potentiality (pp. 1-16). Taylor & Francis Group.
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