Kindergarten educators’ experiences with pedagogical documentation in Maltese state schools

Abstract

In 2018, kindergarten educators in Maltese state schools began to implement an emergent curriculum approach. This curricular reform brought about changes in the way young children are being assessed. Kindergarten educators had to shift from the checklist type of assessment to a more formative type of assessment, where the authentic assessment of young children is made visible through a process referred to in literature as ‘pedagogical documentation’. There is a gap in literature on how pedagogical documentation is systematically being implemented in early years classrooms and how pedagogical documentation is practised in Maltese Kindergarten classrooms following the introduction of an emergent curriculum approach. To fill in this gap in knowledge, this study scrutinised the experiences of six kindergarten educators’ as they changed the way they are assessing three- to five-year-old’s’ learning and development. The main purpose of this study is to unpack the experiences of six kindergarten educators with pedagogical documentation in practice. It particularly focuses on uncovering (i) the ways they are systematically developing, collecting, interpreting and analysing documentation to keep track of the progress in children’s thinking, learning and development over time, and (ii) any challenges and benefits of this process during the educators’ first years of adopting an emergent curriculum approach within their practice. Framed within the theoretical perspective of childhood theories, social justice theory, and socio-cultural theory, this study adopts a qualitative methodology to conduct semi-structured interviews with six kindergarten educators in Maltese state schools. Findings show that Kindergarten educators lack the required shared understanding of the new assessment discourse, purpose, theoretical and practical background to effectively implement pedagogical documentation within an emergent approach in Maltese Kindergarten classrooms. Implications for policy, research and practice are discussed.