With an advanced level of automation and simplification in camera design, photography has never had a wider scope for use within the early years nor been more easily within the reach of the least technically minded. Now practitioners can take full advantage of photography as a powerful tool both in developing young children's thinking and learning and in assessing a child's work and progress.
Photographs and photography can promote learning across the early years curriculum, with photographic images for the child, by the child and of the child all playing an important role in enabling children to develop their understanding of themselves, others and the world around them (see pages 20, 21 and 22).
As with so much of good practice, pre-schools in Reggio Emilia, northern Italy, are again leading the way. The Reggio settings place great emphasis on photography (see box), using it as a link between the home and pre-school, as a way of providing challenging and stimulating images for the children, and as a method of documenting children's learning. So important a part of good practice is it that Reggio practitioners receive training using photography within their setting.
Home links
A visit to one of the 21 pre-schools and 13 infant toddler centres of Reggio Emilia reveals the importance attached to photography. Photographs and details of the school and its staff are displayed on an entrance noticeboard to welcome children and parents, as the area is seen as a 'hinge between two delicate worlds' and therefore crucial for bringing about the child's smooth transition from home to the early years setting.
Staff use photographs of the children at home to learn about a child's background and experiences and the parent's image of their child. Such awareness, in turn, provides the essential basis on which to build effective relations between school and home.
Teachers display photographs in each of the class entrance areas to involve parents in the daily activities of the settings and to prompt discussions at the end of the school day. Through the photographs and discussion, parents can find out about what their child does, and how and whythey do it.
With babies, toddlers and children, photographs are used to foster a sense of identity and communication with friends through the use of the post box/message box system. Under the system, each child has a covered pigeonhole with their name and photograph on it. Children can then 'post' messages, pictures and gifts to their peers whenever they wish.
Photographs are used to sequence events during the course of a day and others are taken throughout the year to create a 'structure' which reflects the child's development, as well as a focus for remembering and recollecting and a 'thread of memory' for children as they transfer from one year group or early years environment to another.
Visual world
The pull-down screens, large wall spaces and minimal clutter that characterise Reggio pre-school design make it easy to use overhead and slide projectors. Children use this equipment independently to project images on to the walls and so create a large-scale visual world in which they can then interact; to swim with dolphins, walk in the woods or fly through space.
Documentation
Documentation, a key and highly valued part of the Reggio pedagogy, is not simply a portfolio of documents produced at the end of a project; it is a record of the process of a child's learning.
Through documentation, early years practitioners can record their observations, then use them to assess a child's progress and inform future planning. Photographs can form a valuable part of documentation, along with other records such as written notes, observation charts, diaries, recordings, slides and videos.
Teachers can use photographs as a basis for discussion with colleagues to re-evaluate individual subjective observations. Photographic records, particularly video footage, also help staff reflect on group dynamics when interacting with the children. Such a collegiate approach is an important form of professional training and development.
For children, photographs can capture the encounters, events, interactions and stages in a project, while revisiting the photographs allows them to reflect, re-evaluate and understand more profoundly their earlier experiences.
Photographic displays around the school help parents to understand its work, and over time encourages their involvement in the life of the school through shifting their focus from their individual child to children as a whole.
The impact of high quality photographic displays can be felt far beyond the pre-school walls. They can give a status and significance to thework of the pre-schools and to the importance of early years education within the community.
In Reggio Emilia this understanding of the work of the pre-schools engenders civic pride and involvement and support for the pre-school system. Internationally this is reflected in the 100 Languagesof Children Exhibition which has beenso successful in engaging people inthe debate about the status of early childhood education.
