Documents in Interaction : A Case Study on Parent–Teacher Meetings (ECEC)

Abstract

Whilst the quality of early childhood education and care (ECEC) is being monitored increasingly closely, various documentation methods and practices that aim at recording and assessing children’s advancement and activities have expanded in ECEC. The research on the impact of such documentation methods on grassroots-level practices is however currently scarce. This chapter illuminates the role of a specific documentation method—that is, a child’s ECEC plan—in parent–teacher meetings in Finnish ECEC. This plan was implemented as a means to increase pedagogical quality of ECEC in Finland. The chapter considers the ECEC plan a participant during parent–teacher meetings and, by applying discursive and conversation analytic methodology, demonstrates how this plan structures these meetings. However, this structuring may also be perceived as partly compromising the quality aims associated with children’s ECEC plans.