International Digital Study Group reflection
The Reggio Emilia Approach to Education
International Digital Study Group (Asia Pacific)
June 25 - July 2, 2021
Reggio Children
Lis Lewis, REANZ Trustee
The way we measure time
The way we see each other
Our horizons have changed
Design a future: renew things - create new things
Represent a reality that is possible.
Hope - a message of trust
Education is a right
Reggio Emilia explores and examines new challenges in education.
Insights from Claudia Giudici, President Reggio Children March 19, 2021
(Key Speaker, REANZ Network Conference via Zoom)
Introduction
In March 2021, prior to my encounter with Reggio Children through the International Digital Study Group (Asia Pacific), our REANZ Trustees and Network representatives were privileged to gain insights from Claudia Giudici, President of Reggio Children, as part of the opening night of our NZ Regional Network Conference. These insights gave clues to the fresh lenses that were reengineering new pathways and possibilities for the Reggio Emilia Approach and its tension with the new way of being in a global pandemic. Their journey of seeing changing horizons and creating a message of hope is underpinned by the principles of the founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach, Loris Malaguzzi. “A consistent, systematic approach to the RE philosophy that never stops with constraints and seeks to do something new. Therefore, changing training without forgetting our pedagogy, opening a new reality of remote learning opportunities, recognising the need to re-energise and reconnect globally with our colleagues - widening boundaries instead of shrinking,” were some of the insights shared by pedagogista, Maddalena Tedeschi.
The Digital Study Group continued that journey into the reality of what Italy went through as the pandemic gripped the globe and closed the face-to-face settings of the Reggio Emilia Infant and Toddler Centres and Preschools. It also halted the vital role of supporting international professional learning encounters through face-to-face visits and conferences that supported and elaborated on those experiences and shared expertise.
This new way of ‘being’ and ‘connecting’ has been embraced through webinars, Live Conversations and this International Digital Study Group. While none of these can replicate the connection a face-to-face encounter offers, it is an innovation and recognition of the vital need to stay connected - to be in ‘relationship’ and continue to see possibilities.
History - values of Reggio Approach and the context of its origins
This is where the study tour began - in history to put context on the when and why the pedagogical pathway was laid in this town in Italy, Reggio Emilia. The approach belongs to the city, to the people of the city. It is not the Loris Malaguzzi Approach. It was born out of the city’s experiences, values, political views and ethics, particularly with respect to women and children of the city. Respecting others through active citizenship. This shift from teachers who implement models and theories that are engineered somewhere else to teachers being researchers. Loris Malaguzzi saw everyone as researchers: cooks, administration, atelierista, teachers and children. To create observations and create relationships. Actions in what we do everyday. Jerome Bruner, as a fellow constructivist, saw that children had the same right to question as they would at a university, to discover rather than be ‘told’. Pedagogista Alessandra Braglia shared, “This approach is more than teaching and pedagogical choices, it is an alliance, a ‘dance between theory and practice’ that is deeply rooted in our beliefs and values.”
Therefore, the fundamental element in the schools was to have an environment that was not neutral. It is the third teacher and considered intentionality in the setup and layout is essential to create relationships. The specific projects co-evolve with time and the research of the children. These spaces are co-designed, not prepackaged - offering opportunities and experiences. The environment triggers and empowers wider connections and relationships. This includes the relationships with families as they co-participate in the culture of childhood and the culture of families: interdependent, interconnected and co-constructed.
Observation, Interpretation and Documentation
Following a comprehensive conversation on the Reggio Approach, the sessions were a balance of theoretical premise and a deeper look at examples that showcased observation, interpretation and documentation with pedagogista, atelierista, and teachers from the schools of Reggio Emilia. We were treated to dialogue between pedagogy and architecture, contexts of life and contexts of learning.
We were offered opportunities that showcased the imagination and surprise of the children when they observed like a scientist. Scientists live with doubts and uncertainties. Like scientists, children ask questions, create hypotheses on the origin of things and the part they play in our world, as they build specific learning and knowledge.
After a closer encounter with the ‘Culture of The Atelier’ and ‘The 100 Languages’, workshops with an atelier were offered to encourage creative thought, curiosity, empathy, engagement with materials and the possibility to discover - to explore as a cognitive process: question, observe and amplify by interpreting and re-interpreting theories. Different objects, different points of view, always needing more than one language. (A side note: this was perhaps the most challenging part of the digital experience, as the Zoom break-out groups were still large and could not replicate the collaboration and dialogue of a face-to-face encounter.)
Reflection and growth opportunities
Throughout the Study Group, questions were welcomed and unpacked as clarification was sought from all around the world. Many grappled with the complexities of the Reggio Emilia Approach and the translation of that into the myriad of local contexts. As is so often needing to be reinforced, the Reggio Emilia Approach isn’t something we ‘do’, it is a deep philosophical, political and ethical way of being and belonging. It is an approach that seeks relationship with the world, the quality of life, sustainability, interdependence within different systems and places inhabited by us. What children are learning and how they are learning by continuous dialogue through living together. By reflecting and redefining school - a learning community with the right vision, thinking of the future - we were encouraged to fall in love with school. Fall in love with learning.
As quoted in a video on ‘The Values of Reggio Emilia Approach’, Howard Gardner was quoted, “...the Reggio experience is not distinguished by the presumption of having found the rules of an accomplished model - because obviously this is not the case, it is distinguished by recognising the need to continue trying to prepare for the changes and to give the answers that best suit the defense and strengthening of the well-being of children and the creative work of the teacher.”
I close with the words of Loris Malaguzzi that feature in a beautiful video ‘Liberty is like a perfumed air…’, “Our experience also confirms that children need a great deal of liberty: the liberty to investigate and to try, to make mistakes and to connect mistakes, to choose where and with whom to invest their curiosity, intelligence and emotions…”
The next International Digital Study Group for the Asia Pacific Time with Reggio Children commences in the month of November - keep watching for these dates.
