Since I began working with children nearly 20 years ago we have been required to keep documentation of their play/learning. This is not a new thing but over the years it has changed personally for me. At first I was strongly opposed to documentation, arguing that it was taking away from our time and ability to implement a meaningful and authentic program and patronising our practice of teaching. Over the years I have come to see the purpose in some documentation (when done correctly considering the above in terms of its function and role in becoming a play and child development expert and am now a supporter of the still disputable practice*.
There is one thing however that still doesn’t sit quite right with me and that is the trend of involving the children you are documenting in the documentation process. This involves asking them what they are doing, showing them photos of themselves and asking them any further questions regarding feelings towards that observation. Basically getting the child to reflect on their play or experience.
In the field of playwork the definition of play is “personal derived, freely chosen and intrinsically motivated” (PPSG, 2015). If it is not this, then it is not play. But to be able to do this, children must feel as though they can! They must be welcomed into an environment that have, as Gibson (1979) would define them, affordances that offer them this rare opportunity of free play. Therefore, we must ask ourselves “what can we do to create this environment?” a lot of it is tangible; creation of areas, resources, such as loose parts as per Nicholson’s (1971) theory of, or Sandseter’s (2007) 6 elements of risky play etc. But the rest and just as important is the intangible things like, time and space away from adults not in a physical sense but mentally. The creation of a place where children don’t feel judged or measured.
When Wendy Russell, long term playworker and professor in the field came to Australia to speak at a PD she mentioned that play must be frivolous to have meaning (Russell, 2017). This means that we need to keep it frivolous. By forcing children to analyse their play or even simply showing photos of it with them automatically removes the frivolity and forces them to overthink something that should not be overthought. One of the eight playwork principals is to be a play advocate which means protecting play in the above definition (PPSG, 2015). When we are out on the floor, we should be protecting play frames not interfering or prying for outcomes. This is also true in a much broader sense. I can imagine some might say “what about asking them after they finish?”. This is still not protecting play. This is patronising play. To truly honour and protect play we must respect it enough to leave it be.
Finally, I’d like you to imagine (as an adult) if you were with your friends or even just at work and a psychologist came with you and documented your interactions and movements, took photos of what you were doing the entire time and then asked you about it. Really just think about how uneasy that would make you feel.
“Could you please leave me alone?” I’d say (probably not that politely either)
But children can’t say that. They just have to answer and become bleedingly aware of themselves which begs the question “Am I creating narcissism or anxiety?
If we ever do involve children in documentation we have to ask “who is it for?” “What is the true purpose of it?” All we may end up doing is stripping away the magic, taking them out of that liminal play and pulling them into an adult world of hyper analysis and judgment.
To become expert in our field we should be observing play. Document it, sure. Discuss it with your team, sure. But please do not involve the child. At the most it can be detrimental, at the least its just down right annoying.
Lucy Ada
*see Outsiders blog February 17th for more information regarding the detriments of digital documentation
Gibson, J. (1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. In H. M. Harcourt, The Theory of Affordances (pp. 127-137). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates .
Nicholson, S. (1971). How not to cheat children: the theory off loose parts. Landscape Architecture, 62, 30-35.
PPSG. (2015). The Playwork Principles. In The Playwork Principles Scrutiny Group. Cardiff.
Russell, W. (2017). PD At Camp Hill OSHC. Brisbane, QLD.
Sandseter, E. (2007). Categorizing risky play—How can we identify risk-taking in children’s play? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 15(2), 237-252.