The View From Within: Documentation as Defiance in Early Childhood Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: Discursive Constructions of Early Childhood Education Teachers: Defiance, Commonalities, and Mismatches

Abstract

This paper examines practices of documentation in relation to the role of early childhood teacher voice and expression extending beyond the confines of the classroom. Problematizing the dominant construct of the “selfless” teacher, I explore classroom documentation as an embodiment of the teacher’s self in the life of the classroom. Through classroom documentation, I frame practitioner writing as a foundation for critical perspectives and an active practice of reconceptualization. Through this lens, I (the classroom teacher) use documentation as a body from which the identity of the practitioner emerges in terms of pedagogy, curriculum, and relationships.
 

Author

• Dana Frantz Bentley, Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols School