It’s Not All Objectivity and Development: Documentation Dilemmas and Discoveries in a Toddler Classroom
Abstract
This article seeks to explore a process of ongoing engagement with classroom documentation, returning to pieces of data and drawing on teaching experiences from a toddler classroom. In response to pervasive narratives in early childhood education that link practices of observation and documentation with accountability and assessment, a self-reflexive inquiry into the discursive forces that guide teachers’ representations of children is taken up. Drawing at times on feminist poststructural theories and new materialisms, imaginings for more expansive possibilities for reconceptualizing documentation are discussed.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Albin-Clark, J. (2020). What is documentation doing? Early childhood education teachers shifting from and between the meanings and actions of documentation. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 22(2), 140–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949120917157
Alcoff, L. (1991). The problem of speaking for others. Cultural Critique, 20(Winter), 5–32. https://doi.org/10.2307/1354221
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press.
Bloch, M. (1992). Critical perspectives on the historical relationship between child development and early childhood education research. In S. Kessler & B. B. Swadener (Eds.), Reconceptualizing the early childhood curriculum: Beginning the dialogue (pp. 3–20). Teachers College Press.
Bloch, M. N., & Popkewitz, T. S. (2008). Constructing the parent, teacher, and child: Discourses of development. In L. D. Soto (Ed.), The politics of early childhood education (pp. 7–32). Peter Lang.
Bradbury, A. (2020). Datified at four: The role of data in the “schoolification” of early childhood education in England. In J. Jarke & A. Breiter (Eds.), The datification of education. Routledge.
Britzman, D. P. (2000). “The question of belief”: Writing poststructural ethnography. In E. A. St. Pierre & W. S. Pillow (Eds.), Working the ruins: Feminist poststructural theory and methods in education (pp. 27–41). Routledge.
Brown, T., & Jones, L. (2001). Action research and postmodernism: Congruence and critique. Open University Press.
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble. Routledge.
Butler, J. (2005). Giving an account of oneself. Fordham University Press.
Cannella, G. S. (1997). Deconstructing early childhood education: Social justice and revolution. Peter Lang.
Casey, P. J. (2023). Lived experience: Defined and critiqued. Critical Horizons, 24, 282–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/14409917.2023.2241058
Cohen, D. H., Stern, V., Balaban, N., & Gropper, N. (2016). Observing and recording the behavior of young children (6th ed.). Teachers College Press.
Coleman, R., & Ringrose, J. (2013). Introduction: Deleuze and research methodologies. In R. Coleman & J. Ringrose (Eds.), Deleuze and research methodology (pp. 1–22). Edinburgh University Press.
Davies, B. (1994). Poststructuralist theory and classroom practice. Deakin University.
Davies, B. (2003). Frogs and snails and feminist tales: Preschool children and gender (rev. ed.). Hampton Press.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. University of Minnesota Press.
Facca, D., Gladstone, B., & Teachman, G. (2020). Working the limits of “giving voice” to children: A critical conceptual review. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 19, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406920933391
Fincham, E. N. (2022). From “barbaric” to “knowing”: Disrupting teaching to resignify “toddler.” Global Studies of Childhood, 12(3), 297–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/20436106221117572
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Random House.
Frazier, H. (2023, July 31). In preschool, one size doesn’t fit all. So why is NYC asking educators to use a single curriculum? Chalkbeat. https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2023/7/31/23807750/preschool-creative-curriculum-nyc/
Giamminuti, S., Merewether, J., & Blaise, M. (2022). Pedagogical documentation and the refusal of method: Troubling dogmas and inviting collective obligations. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 30(2), 213–226. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2022.2046834
Gonzalez-Mena, J., & Eyer, D. W. (2009). Infants, toddlers, and caregivers: A curriculum of respectful, responsive care and education (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Gonzalez-Mena, J., & Shabazian, A. (2024). Foundations of early childhood education: Teaching children in a diverse society (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Goodwin, A. L., Cheruvu, R., & Genishi, C. (2008). Responding to multiple diversities in early childhood education. In C. Genishi & A. L. Goodwin (Eds.), Diversities in early childhood education: Rethinking and doing (pp. 3–10). Routledge.
Gray, C., & Winter, E. (2011). Hearing voices: Participatory research with preschool children with and without disabilities. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 19(3), 309–320. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2011.597963
Hackett, A., MacLure, M., & McMahon, S. (2020). Reconceptualising early language development: Matter, sensation, and the more-than-human. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2020.1767350
Holbrook, T., & Pourchier, N. M. (2014). Collage as analysis: Remixing in the crisis of doubt. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(6), 754–763. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800414530260
Hultman, K., & Lenz Taguchi, H. (2010). Challenging anthropocentric analysis of visual data: A relational materialist methodological approach to educational research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 23(5), 525–542. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2010.500628
James, A. (2007). Giving voice to children’s voices: Practices and problems, pitfalls and potentials. American Anthropologist, 109(2), 261–272. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4496640
Jipson, J. A. (2008). The stealing of wonderful ideas: The politics of imposition and representation in research on early childhood. In L. D. Soto (Ed.), The politics of early childhood education (pp. 167–177). Peter Lang.
Kim, K. (2016). Teaching to the data collection? (Un)intended consequences of online child assessment system, “Teaching Strategies GOLD.” Global Studies of Childhood, 6(1), 98–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043610615627925
Kind, S. (2013). Lively entanglements: The doings, movements, and enactments of photography. Global Studies of Childhood, 3(4), 427–441. https://doi.org/10.2304/gsch.2013.3.4.427
Kind, S. (2014). Material encounters. Capilano University Studio Art Gallery. North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/589376a3440243086b0f5fb9/t/61dc5dfdff5ec56d790256d4/1641831950480/MaterialEncounters+CC15_Nov2021UPD+for+web.pdf
Komulainen, S. (2007). The ambiguity of the child's “voice” in social research. Childhood, 14(1), 11–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568207068561
Lather, P. (1993). Fertile obsession: Validity after poststructuralism. The Sociological Quarterly, 34(4), 673–693. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4121374
Lawrence-Lightfoot, S. (2008). Reflections on portraiture: A dialogue between art and science. Qualitative Inquiry, 11, 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800404270955
Løkken, G. (2011). Lived experience as an observer among toddlers. In E. Johansson & E. J. White (Eds.), Educational Research with Our Youngest (pp. 63–82). Springer.
MacLure, M. (2011). Qualitative inquiry: Where are the ruins? Qualitative Inquiry, 17, 997–1005. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800411423198
MacLure, M. (2013). The wonder of data. Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, 13, 228–232. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708613487863
MacNaughton, G. (2005). Doing Foucault in early childhood studies: Applying poststructural ideas. Routledge.
MacRae, C. (2012). Encounters with a life(less) baby doll: Rethinking relations of agency through a collectively lived moment. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 13(2), 120–131. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2012.13.2.120
MacRae, C. (2020). Tactful hands and vibrant mattering in the sand tray. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 20, 90–110. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1468798420901858
Maguire-Fong, M. J. (2020). Teaching and learning with infants and toddlers: Where meaning-making begins (2nd ed.). Teachers College Press.
Marcus, G. E., & Fischer, M. M. J. (1986). Anthropology as cultural critique: An experimental moment in the human sciences. University of Chicago Press.
Meretoja, H. (2018). The ethics of storytelling: Narrative hermeneutics, history, and the possible. Oxford University Press.
Miller, J. L. (2017). Neo-positivist intrusions, post-qualitative challenges, and PAR’S generative indeterminacies. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 30(5), 488–503. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2017.1303215
Mitchell, C., & Reid-Walsh, J. (2002). Researching children’s popular culture. Routledge.
Morrison, G. S., Woika, M., J., & Breffni, L. (2021). Fundamentals of early childhood education (9th ed.). Pearson.
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). (2019). Professional standards and competencies for early childhood educators [Position statement]. Author. https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position-statements/standards_and_competencies_ps.pdf
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). (2021). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Author.
Orner, M., Miller, J. L., & Ellsworth, E. (1996). Excessive moments and educational discourses that try to contain them. Educational Theory, 46, 71–91. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1179960
Osgood, J. (2006). Deconstructing professionalism in early childhood education: Resisting the regulatory gaze. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 7, 5–14. https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2006.7.1.5
Osgood, J. (2010). Reconstructing professionalism in ECEC: The case for the “critically reflective emotional professional.” Early Years, 30(2), 119–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2010.490905
Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Kind, S., & Kocher, L. M. (2024). Encounters with materials in early childhood education (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Pillow, W. (2003). Confession, catharsis, or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(2), 175–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/0951839032000060635
Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. SAGE.
Scott, J. W. (1991). The evidence of experience. Critical Inquiry, 17(4), 773–797. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1343743
Seitz, H. (2008). The power of documentation in the early childhood classroom. Young Children, 63(2), 88–93. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42730984
Souto-Manning, M., & Rabadi-Raol, A. (2018). (Re)Centering quality in early childhood education: Toward intersectional justice for minoritized children. Review of Research in Education, 402, 203–225. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X18759550
Sparrman, A., & Lindgren, A. (2010). Visual documentation as a normalizing practice: A new discourse of visibility in preschool. Surveillance & Society, 7, 248–261. https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v7i3/4.4154
Spyrou, S. (2011). The limits of children’s voices: From authenticity to critical, reflexive representation. Childhood, 18(2), 151–165. https://doi.org/10.1177/0907568210387834
St. Pierre, E. A. (1997). Methodology in the fold and the irruption of transgressive data. International Journal of Qualitative Research, 10(2), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/095183997237278
St. Pierre, E. A. (2019). Post qualitative inquiry in an ontology of immanence. Qualitative Inquiry, 25, 3–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800418772634
St. Pierre, E. A., & Pillow, W. S. (2000). Introduction: Inquiry among the ruins. In E. A. St. Pierre & W. S. Pillow (Eds.). Working the ruins: Feminist poststructural theory and methods in education (pp. 1–24). Routledge.
Svalastog, A. L., Wilson, S., & Hansen, K. L. (2021). Knowledge versus education in the margins: An Indigenous and feminist critique of education. Educational Sciences, 11, 627–643. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11100627
Swadener, B. (2010). “At risk” or “at promise”? From deficit constructions of “other childhood” to possibilities for authentic alliances with children and families. International Critical Childhood Policy Studies, 3, 7–29. https://journals.sfu.ca/iccps/index.php/childhoods/article/view/26/23
Taylor, A., Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., & Blaise, M. (2012). Children’s relations to the more-than-human world. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 13(2), 81–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2012.13.2.81
Weedon, C. (1997). Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory. Blackwell.
Yoon, H. S., & Templeton, T. N. (2019). The practice of listening to children: The challenges of hearing children out in an adult-regulated world. Harvard Educational Review, 89, 55–84. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-89.1.55
Zbyszinski, L. (2023, September 21). Washington educators individualize instruction with GOLD. Teaching Strategies. https://teachingstrategies.com/blog/washington-gold-individualized-instruction/
Zembylas, M. (2005). A pedagogy of unknowing: Witnessing unknowability in teaching and learning. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 24, 139–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-005-1287-3
Copyright (c) 2025 Emmanuelle Fincham
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors contributing to the Journal of Childhood Studies agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International license. This licence allows anyone to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear.
Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal right of first publication.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
