observation acts as a form of disciplinary power. The child placed under wur veiuance, is regulated and using techniques of measurement, classifi. categorizaron and assessment. This raises important question1 about the effects for children, p renb and early childhood professionals of how traditional developmental observation forms a hich limits and potentializes the ways each child understood. Some of these questions include: How do the universal categories of traditional observation silence the child? Do we know what the different discourses in operation are in our early child howd classrooms? oid further conversations around what happened for him Why did Donald in the book comer? How are children included or excluded in play and why What do children have to do or Rive up to be part ofthe social discourse? How do we create a community where children can have a voice that is not constituted within a narrow frame, which operates to privilege, validate and/or narginalize particular groups? rahat you about As we work to reconceptualize the knowledge generated through observation in our early childhood curriculum we are revealing the multiplicity of children's, parents' and car ly childhood professionals' ideas and understandings about the child and themselves which have been silenced and marginalized by our traditional approaches to observation. Recognizing the observer and the observa ion as subiective also entangles the carly chddhood professional in renections about who he or she s and how his or her gender, culture, class, race, sexuality and lived experiences intersect to frame his or her view of the child, Recognizing the subjective qualities of observation makes any singular, final truth about the child problematic. However, in the uncertain spaces created there are new possibiities for observations based on multiple views to be recognized as valid and important, and new relationships between parents, children and vrofessionals to be con- structed. Reconceptualizing the relationships between parents, children and pro- fessionals also involves recognizing and engaging with the complex historical and political meanings of culture, race, class, gender and sexuality within the social context We have tried to do this by challenging the current discourses in early childhood based on developmental psychology and use posrmodern theory to open up multiple views of what it is to be a teacher, u parent and a child begun to do this by reflecting as arly childhood professionals on who we are and disclosing to parents, children and colleagues that our understandings of our selves our culture, class, race, gender and sexuality influence what we say and how we practise When we use a discourse where parents and ldren's history, culture and race are important and the"good teacher' sn't positioned as knowing everything, then knowledge/power relations may shift to open up space for different dialogue