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An Examination of Turkish Early Childhood Teachers’ Challenges in Implementing Pedagogical Documentation

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Abstract

This study examined the challenges of pedagogical documentation from the perspectives of Turkish early childhood teachers. Pedagogical documentation was initially introduced as a teaching, learning, and assessment tool in early childhood education settings in Turkey through a three-year project. A total of 22 early childhood teachers working in a variety of early childhood programs participated in the study. Data were gathered via semi-structured and focus group interviews at the end of an intervention on the use of pedagogical documentation. The data analysis was based on an inductive approach, revealing that teachers encountered functional and attitudinal challenges in implementing pedagogical documentation. Three major themes or challenges emerged in this study: (a) challenges originating from contextual elements, (b) challenges originating from the nature of pedagogical documentation, and (c) challenges related to the adaptations of teachers to the pedagogical documentation process. The findings underline the need to transform teachers’ perspectives so that they are more amenable to child-centered practices while acknowledging the importance of collaboration with all stakeholders. In-service and pre-service training should be planned to support teachers’ understanding of pedagogical documentation and to ensure that teachers employ the pedagogical documentation process in their own practices.

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Funding

This study was supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under the Grant No. 113K560.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Early Childhood Education, Hacettepe University, 06800, Ankara, Turkey

    Arif Yılmaz, Ayça Ülker Erdem, Fulya Ezmeci, Emine Hande Aydos, Hazal Begüm Ünal & Esra Akgül

  2. Department of Early Childhood Education, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

    Figen Şahin & Berrin Somer Ölmez

  3. UNICEF Turkey Office, Ankara, Turkey

    Mehmet Buldu

  4. Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Elif Buldu & Metehan Buldu

  5. Department of Early Childhood Education, TED University, Ankara, Turkey

    Selda Aras

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  1. Arif Yılmaz
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  2. Figen Şahin
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Correspondence to Arif Yılmaz.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of TED University (2013/10) and Ministry of National Education (MoNE) Directorate of Primary Education (2013/70297673/100/167068).

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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This study was supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under the Grant No. 113K560 and an earlier version of the study was presented at the 18th AMSE-AMCE-WAER Conference.

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Yılmaz, A., Şahin, F., Buldu, M. et al. An Examination of Turkish Early Childhood Teachers’ Challenges in Implementing Pedagogical Documentation. Early Childhood Educ J 49, 1047–1059 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-020-01113-w

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