Individual development plans from a critical didactic perspective: Focusing on Montessori- and Reggio Emilia-profiled preschools in Sweden

Abstract

Individual development plans, which are sometimes designed as ‘agreements — contracts’, can be considered the most rigid type of regulation on the individual level in the history of preschool in Sweden. Today we speak about a deregulated school. This regulation seems to have changed its character, gradually drifting from school regulation to individual and self-regulation. The study aims to map and discuss the variation of content and positions for children in the documentation from all preschools in a municipality in the south of Sweden. Documentation and individual development plans (IDP) are studied from preschools with different pedagogical profiles. Materials from Montessori- and Reggio Emilia-inspired preschools are focused on. A critical didactic perspective refers to a discussion and critical scrutiny of the structure of contents, assessment and position of children in different types of documentation. The perspective leads to questions such as: how is content constructed, and what governs the choice of content in IDPs and documentation at the institutional and individual levels? How is content related to pedagogical profile? What identities and positions are formulated for children in relation to various contents and profiles? The empirical data in the study were gathered in 2008 and comprises text in the form of governing documents on different levels: as municipal guidelines, profile descriptions on the municipality’s websites and IDP forms. Tentative results show a variation with both similar and diverse constructions of contents and positions related to pedagogical profiles.