Portfolio som arbetsverktyg i förskola och skola - barns beskrivningar av sin portfolio
The study sheds light on pupils individual plans of development and portfolios from the perspective of children. It has an ethnographic standpoint. It was carried out on children and pupils in pre-school, pre-school class and third grade. By further investigating how children and pupils use their individual development plans and portfolios, in which settings and to whom they communicate them, this study is able to grasp the discourse that is created around the instrument itself. This study is also interested in and aims to find the theoretical frame, in essence, which envelops both the construction of childhood and children?s own activities within the limitations and opportunities that this structure offers. By focusing on micro, hereby meaning the thoughts and perceptions of children and pupils themselves, and on macro, such as the structure around the children and pupils, the aim of finding the previously mentioned theoretical space is fulfilled. The study was carried out by means of an ethnographic method, with conversations, interviews, surveys, observations and filming. The results show that children and pupils view their individual developmental plans and portfolios as an affordance, both in a physical sense and as an offer of a symbolic space, a space shared by others but with the same significance for all. It is also apparent that the children and pupils use their individual development plans to ascertain their positions, to show who they are.