Introduction
to the Fundamental Values
of
the Education of Young
Children in Reggio Emilia *
© Lella Gandini (revision October 2008)
Young
children, their care and their education have long been a public concern at
various levels of Italian society. What
families have obtained was not easy to achieve; it came from a great deal of
effort and political involvement. Workers, educators, and especially women were
active and effective advocates of the legislation that established public
preschools in 1968 and infant-toddler centers in 1971. The results of the
effort by all these determined people are publicly-funded
municipal as well as national programs for young children that combine the
concept of social services with education. Both education and care are
considered necessary to provide high quality, full-day experiences for young
children.
In
Italy now, preschools, whether municipal, national or
private, serve about 95% of the children between 3 and 6. Infant-toddler programs have developed much
less in quantity but the quality of these services in those municipalities that
have invested seriously in them has been generally outstanding.
What, then, is so special about Reggio
Emilia, a city of 160,000 inhabitants in northern Italy?
First of all,
the city-run educational system for young children originated there in schools
started by parents; literally groups of parents built them with their own hands
at the end of World War II. The first
school was built with proceeds from the sale of a tank, some trucks, and a few
horses left behind by the retreating German army. Such participation by parents
has all along remained an essential part of the way of working on education in
that city.
Secondly, right from the start Loris
Malaguzzi, then a young teacher, guided and directed the energies of those
parents, later preparing teachers and becoming an educational leader not just
in his hometown but also on the national scene.
Thirdly, the tradition of cooperative work
is firmly rooted in
the Emilia Romagna region and is based on a sense of community and of solidarity.
Through a strong sense of solidarity, people there are accustomed to construct
and maintain the connections with the community. They typically respond to
immediate, usually material needs, by forming cooperatives. Yet the spirit of
cooperation that they engendered in such endeavors tends to transcend those
needs to leave enduring marks upon the culture of their region.
What
are the distinguishing features of the education of young children with regard to theory and practice that have made the Reggio
Emilia approach so notable?
An examination of the features of this
philosophy soon reveals that the educators have been serious readers of John
Dewey, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, David Hawkins, Jerome Bruner, Howard Gardner
and other world renowned scientists and philosophers. In fact, Reggio Emilia educators have
continued to keep abreast of the latest research in child development and
education in other countries. At the
same time, though, they continue to formulate new interpretations and new
hypotheses and ideas about learning and teaching through their daily
observations and practice of learning along with the children.
The image of the
child.
All children have preparedness, potential, curiosity; they have interest in
relationship, in constructing their own learning, and in negotiating with
everything the environment brings to them. Children should be considered as
active citizens with rights, as contributing members, with their families, of
their local community. Children with
special rights (rather than using the term special needs) have precedence in
becoming part of an infant/toddler center or a preschool.
Children's
relationships and interactions within a system. Education has to focus on each child, not considered in isolation, but
seen in relation with the family, with other children, with the teachers, with
the environment of the school, with the community, and with the wider
society. Each school is viewed as a
system in which all these relationships, which are all interconnected and
reciprocal, are activated and supported.
The
role of parents.
Parents are an essential component of the program; a
competent and active part of their children's learning experience. They are not
considered consumers but co-responsible partners. Their right to participation
is expected and supported; it takes many forms, and
can help ensure the welfare of all children in the program.
The
role of space: amiable schools. The infant-toddler centers and
preschools convey many messages, of which the most immediate is:
this is a place where adults have thought about the quality and the instructive
power of space. The lay-out of physical space fosters encounters, communication,
and relationships. Children learn a
great deal in exchanges and negotiations with their peers; therefore
teachers organize spaces that support the engagement of small groups.
Teachers and
children as partners in learning. A strong image of the child has to correspond to a strong image of the teacher. Teachers
are not considered protective baby-sitters, teaching basic skills to children
but rather they are seen as learners along with the children. They are
supported, valued for their experience and their ideas, and seen as researchers.
Cooperation at all levels in the schools is the powerful mode of working that
makes possible the achievement of the complex goals that Reggio educators have
set for themselves
Not
a pre-set curriculum but a process of inviting and sustaining learning. Once teachers
have prepared an environment rich in materials and possibilities, they observe
and listen to the children in order to know how to
proceed with their work. Teachers use the understanding they gain thereby to
act as a resource for them. They ask questions and thus discover the children's
ideas, hypotheses, and theories. They see learning not as a linear process but
as a spiral progression and consider themselves to be partners in this process
of learning. After observing children in action, they compare, discuss, and
interpret together with other teachers their observations, recorded in
different ways, to leave traces of what has been observed. They use their
interpretations and discussions to make choices that they share with the
children.
The power of
documentation. Transcriptions
of children's remarks and discussions, photographs of their activity, and
representations of their thinking and learning are traces that are carefully
studied. These documents have several
functions. The most important among them
is to be tools for making hypotheses (to project) about the direction in which
the work and experiences with the children will go. Once these documents are organized and displayed they help to make parents aware of their
children's experience and maintain their involvement. They make it possible for
teachers to understand the children better and to evaluate the teachers' own
work, thus promoting their professional growth; they make children aware that
their effort is valued; and furthermore, they create an archive that traces the
history of the school.
The many
languages of children.
Atelierista and atelier. A teacher
who is usually prepared in the visual arts (but also in other expressive arts) works
closely with the other teachers and the children in every preprimary school and
visits the infant-toddler centers. This
teacher, who works in a special workshop or studio known as an
"atelier", is called an "atelierista". The atelier contains a great variety of tools
and resource materials, along with records of past projects and
experiences. What is done with materials
and media is not regarded as art per se, because in the view of Reggio
educators the children's use of many media is not a separate part of the
curriculum but an inseparable, integral part of the whole cognitive/symbolic
expression involved in the process of learning.
Through time the materials and work of the “atelier” has entered into
all the classrooms through the setting up of “mini-ateliers” and through the
learning on the part of teachers and atelierista to work in very connected ways.
Projects.
Projects
provide the narrative and structure to the children's and teachers' learning
experiences. They are based on the strong conviction that learning by doing is
of great importance and that to discuss in groups and to revisit ideas and
experiences is essential to gain better understanding and to learn. Projects
may start either from a chance event, an idea or a problem posed by one or more
children, or an experience initiated directly by teachers. They can last from a
few days to several months.
Educators in Reggio Emilia have
no intention of suggesting that their program should be looked at as a model to
be copied in other countries; rather, they consider their work as an
educational experience that consists of reflection on theory, practice, and
further careful reflection in a program that is continuously renewed and
re-adjusted. Considering the enormous
interest that educators show in the work done in the Reggio schools, they suggest
that teachers and parents in each school, any school, anywhere, could in their
own context reflect on these ideas, keeping in focus always the relationships
and learning that are in process locally to examine needs and strengths, thus
finding possible ways to construct change.
* *Earlier
versions of this article appeared in L.Gandini
(1993), Fundamentals of the Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood
Education, Young Children,49(1), 4-8, and L.Gandini(1997),
The Story and Foundations of the Reggio Emilia Approach in Teaching and Learning: Collaborative Exploration of the Reggio Emilia
Approach, edited by V.R.Fu, A.J.Stremmel
and L.T.Hill.(Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Merrill/Prentice Hall)