Title:
OUTDOOR AND DOCUMENTATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

Authors:
Monica Gottardo and Emilia Restiglian, Italy

Abstract:
Increasingly, experiences in nature offered to children in educational contexts are gaining more attention as they are seen as experiences that promote children's protagonism and experiential learning. Furthermore, there are various positive effects found in adults and children who spend time in the open air (Giunti et al., 2023; Rickinson et al., 2004; Remmen & Iversen, 2023). In this sense, in early childhood facilities, pedagogical documentation constitutes a fundamental tool as it permits the valorisation of these experiences and thus of the learning, discoveries, and explorations of children who live in contact with the outdoor environment and with the materials found in nature. In fact, documentation is an educational practice and strategy that makes it possible to make children's learning and discovery processes visible, to narrate their experiences through the point of view of the adult, but also, and above all, of the children. Documentation is fundamental practice because it enables the promotion of a participatory culture in early childhood facilities through the involvement of all the actors who experience the educational reality (Edwards et al., 2017). What outdoor activities and experiences are promoted? What tools and ways can be used to trace the activities experienced by children in nature? What kind of documentation makes it possible to promote children's protagonism and to enhance learning processes in natural contexts? Starting from these references and questions that emerged, it was decided to undertake a systematic review of the literature to understand in the national and international context what research has been conducted on Outdoor Education experiences and how and with what strategies these experiences have been documented.