This article is included with permission from independent early childhood education expert Catharine Hydon, and is based on content from a recent presentation of hers.
Recent restrictions on the use of personal devices – and changes to align with the National Model Code – have prompted many services to critically reflect on how they use images. This moment presents an opportunity for services to deepen educators’ interactions and engagement with and move beyond the burden of taking constant photos.
Photos for assessment and planning
Photos should be one of many sources of information and strategies that educators use to collect and document information about children's learning and development. Photos can:
- document and capture the learning journey
- show progression
- contribute to observations
- make ‘the distance travelled’ visible to both children and their families (including families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds).
Photos cannot be considered a stand-alone assessment tool, as this misses a crucial step: where educators critically reflect, analyse, and use their professional judgement. Assessment of children’s learning is undermined if there is an overreliance on photos, but where there is strong analysis photos can bring learning into sharper focus.
Opportunities to strengthen relationships with families
Talking to families about the way the service uses photos, and the new approach, could present an opportunity to reset expectations away from a constant stream of photos to deeper conversations about children’s learning. Services could consider developing an intentional and targeted approach, where educators discuss children’s progression and share documentation that shows children’s thinking with families as they arrive at the service.
Services could also take this opportunity to engage with families to gain their feedback on what alternative strategies the service could use to understand their children’s progress.
Questions for reflection
Below is a list of questions to prompt critical reflective practice at your service, as a group as well as for individual professional reflection. This could be led by the educational leader.
- Do educators seek children’s permission before taking a photo?
- What role should photos play in the planning cycle to document and communicate children’s learning, and what are their limits? How, when and why are they used?
- How might photos reinforce or undermine educator’s capacity to document and track children’s learning and development journey?
- How can services re-evaluate their documentation practices to ensure they meet the requirements of the National Law and National Quality Standard without overburdening educators?
- How can educators balance family expectations for photos and visual evidence with authentic, ethical and meaningful documentation?
- What alternative strategies and practices can educators use to build strong relationships with families and demonstrate children's progress, rather than just showing photos?
Updated