Abstract
Informed by research into the use of data and research-based knowledge to improve pedagogical practices, this chapter incorporates different perspectives on the documentation and evaluation practices in Danish Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services. In the chapter, selected results from 12 interviews conducted with ECEC staff and leaders representatives across six ECEC services are discussed to enable an examination of, among other things, what data types and research-based knowledge are currently available in Danish ECEC services, as well as staff members’ experience with, and views of, the use of these forms of knowledge. This selection aims to provide a picture of the use of evidence-based knowledge in practice.
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Notes
- 1.
The chapter uses the term staff to refer broadly to ECEC employees, which can be both educated pedagogues and assistants with no professional educational background.
- 2.
The chapter uses the terms leader, leaders, and leadership team to refer to the management in each ECEC service.
- 3.
The analysis included desk research of existing literature and interviews with ECEC staff, leaders, consultants, and district leaders in four municipalities and representatives from research.
- 4.
In this chapter, evidence is used as an umbrella term for data and research-based knowledge.
- 5.
Here, key actors can be the children, parents, ECEC staff, and leaders.
- 6.
- 7.
These staff representatives were chosen by the leadership team in each ECEC service.
- 8.
The written reflections were made by ECEC staff representatives and management of the individual ECEC center.
- 9.
These three tools are the competency wheel, the Children’s Ruler, and the mapping in the Program for Learning Leadership (PLL).
- 10.
- 11.
For more on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, refer to https://www.retsinformation.dk/forms/r0710.aspx?id=60837
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Hansen, L.S. (2023). Use of Data and Research-Based Knowledge in Early Childhood Education and Care. In: Hansen, L.S., Ringsmose, C. (eds) Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care through Leadership and Organizational Learning. International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development, vol 41. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39419-5_6
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