Monica Gottardo

Sono laureata in Scienze dell’educazione e della formazione, curriculum servizi educativi per l'infanzia, presso l’Università di Padova con Sede a Rovigo e in Pedagogia presso l’Università di Bologna. Ho lavorato come educatrice in nidi di infanzia con bambini dagli 0 ai 3 anni. Attualmente come Dottoranda mi occupo di valutazione della qualità nei servizi educativi per la prima infanzia, di cultura della partecipazione di bambini e famiglie alla vita del servizio, di documentazione e progettazione.

I graduated in Educational and Instructional Sciences, curriculum educational services for children, at the University of Padova and in Pedagogy at the University of Bologna. I have worked as an educator in childcare centres with children from 0 to 3 years. Currently, as a PhD student, I am working on quality assessment in early childhood education services, on the culture of participation of children and families in the life of the service, and on documentation and planning.

The social and cultural value of educational services, parental responsibility and the opportunity resulting from early education are considered determinants in containing the development of inequalities (Tamburlini, 2019; Nurturing Care Framework, 2018). This value attributed to early childhood education services leads to the search for a definition of quality in educational contexts. Of relevance in this direction is the European Document Proposal for Key Principles of a Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care (2014), which identified principles to promote educational quality in early childhood services. In particular, monitoring and evaluation are considered to be thought processes which, by involving several actors, improve the quality of services. In this regard we refer to the empowerment evaluation approach that attributes to evaluation the function of promoting awareness in the actors involved and initiating transformative processes in them (Fetterman, 2000). Evaluation is connected to the process of self-evaluation that leads the individual educator and the educational team to reflect on their practices, thus opening the way to changes with respect to their actions, working in a perspective of growth through the co-participation of the stakeholders. At the same time, documentation and observation as educational practices stand in relation to formative evaluation as they make learning visible and stimulate actors to question themselves with respect to educational action, encouraging processes of self-assessment and meaning-making (Edwards, et all., 2017).

Starting from these theoretical references, in September 2021 the University of Padova, in collaboration with SPES (Servizi alla Persona Educativi e Sociali), founded the Milla Baldo Ceolin childcare, located in the city of Padova, which welcomes the children of the University's personnel, reserving some places for children from local families.

The Doctoral Project, financed by PNRR-DM 351/2022 and 352/2022 funds, NextGenerationEU, is part of the research and improvement actions by the University of Padova, as indicated in the Pedagogical Project of the Child Day Care Centre, considering the educational service a place of cohesion and innovation.

The aim of the research is to co-construct a self-evaluation tool for the quality of educational processes with the participation of the educational team, families, and children. The investigation methodology is participatory and transformative research as it aims to improve educational practices. The data collection tools are questionnaire, participatory observation, focus group (Cohen, Manion, Morrison, 2018). The co-constructed self-assessment tool through the sharing of the idea of quality in the educational service stimulates work with a view to participation and improvement of practices.

childcare, quality, participation