Mariacristina Picchio

Documentation and analysis of children’s experience: an ongoing collegial activity for early childhood professionals

Systematic documentation and analysis of educational practice can be a powerful tool for continuous support to the professionalism of early childhood education practitioners. This paper discusses data from a three-year action-research initiative carried out by a research agency in collaboration with a network of Italian municipal nido services. The action research aimed at elaborating and implementing documentation procedures that nido practitioners could accomplish continuously and that could form the basis of a collegial reflection on children’s experience and the improvement of practices. The analysis of practitioners’ discussions about weaknesses and strengths of the new procedures shows how they could be inscribed within the framework of their current professional engagement and support their processes of reflexivity. The analysis also highlights the important role of collegiality in sustaining practitioners’ analysis, evaluation and improvement of their practice.

The use of documentation in a participatory system of evaluation

Pedagogical documentation is a practice currently used in Italian early childhood education and care (ECEC) services to make visible children’s learning processes in ECEC, to promote parents’ participation and to support professionals’ reflexive competences. These functions of pedagogical documentation have been enhanced within a system of participatory evaluation of ECEC service quality, which has been implemented in several Italian sites. Specific procedures of documentation of children’s and parents’ experience in the ECEC setting were proposed. On the basis of the documentation, all stakeholders participated in the evaluation process and expressed and discussed the quality of ECEC provision from their different perspectives as professionals, parents or managers. They expressed their judgements considering whether children’s and parents’ experiences in the service were congruent with the educational goals and objectives pursued. The use of documentation guaranteed a common basis for anchoring discussion among stakeholders to concrete matters as well as for making judgements transparent for everybody. The final outcome of this discussion is also documented and constitutes the basis for further planning and improvement of the quality of the service.

Sustaining ECEC quality through continuing professional development: systemic approaches to practitioners’ professionalisation in the Italian context

There is a broad consensus in international debates that the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services is inextricably linked to the professionalisation of its workforce. In particular, the importance of providing ECEC practitioners with continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities has been increasingly recognised in recent years. Against this background little attention has been paid to the investigation of professional development practices that have proved to be effective and supportive for qualifying educational work within ECEC settings. Drawing on the data collected from documentary sources and interviews with local experts, this paper will illustrate and critically analyse relevant CPD initiatives that have been implemented within municipal early childhood services in the Italian context. Practitioners’ active engagement in professional development processes and peer exchanges within a collegial framework, both of which create fertile ground for educational experimentation and shared reflectivity, have been identified as main strengths of these programmes. By disseminating the pedagogic knowledge and expertise elaborated within such programmes, the present analysis offers a significant contribution to the existing debate on the CPD of early years practitioners from a systemic perspective.

Professionalisation Policies in the ECEC Field: Trends and Tensions in the Italian Context.

In recent times, a growing consensus has emerged, among researchers and policy-makers, that a well-educated, competent and adequately supported workforce is crucial for the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC). Despite governmental initiatives aimed to enhance the professional preparation and continuing development of early years practitioners being high on the political agenda of many EU member states, very few studies are analysing professionalisation policy developments and their implications within the national contexts of ECEC. Against this background, the article describes the key features of ECEC policies in Italy and their current trends by focussing specifically on the professionalisation of early childhood practitioners working across 0–3 and 3–6 services. Drawing on the data collected from documentary sources and interviews with key informants, this paper will critically review policy discourses as well as recurring themes and tensions arising from the academic and political debate. The findings from our analysis highlight that the increasing discontinuity characterising professionalisation initiatives across the 0–3 and 3–6 sector might lead to widening the gap among professionals working in such services. The risks that are associated with this trend are, on the one side, to devalue the educational role of 0–3 services and, on the other, to produce the schoolification of educational practices in 3–6 services. In addition, our analysis identified inconsistencies between initial and continuing professional development policies, which are progressively creating a dichotomy between initial and in-service training. The consequences of this process might produce, on the long term, the fragmentation of the ECEC system across public and private not-for-profit provision with the subsequent risk of impoverishing the local culture of childhood on which the Italian ECEC system has traditionally built its strength.

Toddlers’ Participation in Joint Activities with Peers in nido

Socialization with peers is one of the main goals of early childhood education and care outside of the family but the processes of young children’s sociality in ECEC centres are still to be fully understood. This chapter presents an analysis of toddler’s sociality with peers during their everyday life in an ECEC centre, based on ethnographic data (videos and written notes) collected during a whole morning within the toddler program of a municipal nido in Italy. It highlights that in a group situation children’s attention is aroused by a multiplicity of social stimuli and that they often participate in joint activities with peers. The analysis of toddlers’ participation shows that both social and cognitive processes converge in children’s sociality with peers and contribute to make the ECEC experience an important step in the course of their life. Implications for educational practices in ECEC centres are also discussed.

Avaliando a qualidade dos serviços para a infância: uma abordagem participativa

Early childhood education and care services present some specific features that have important implications on theoretical approach and procedures for evaluating their quality. We will present a system of evaluation of ECEC quality designed by our research group and implemented in some Italian municipalities, discussing its approach to evaluation and describing its procedures. In the evaluation process, the participation of different stakeholders (teachers, pedagogical coordinators, managers and parents) is promoted. The system is based on procedures of observations and written documentation of children’s and parents experience collected systematically by ECEC professionals analyzed and discussed during collegial meetings. Evaluation activities are inscribed within the current professional practices of ECEC professionals and are aimed at improving educational practices as well as professionals’ reflexivity.