Our History

The Reggio Emilia approach

The history of Reggio schools began in the region of Emilia Romagna, Italy, during the post-World War II era. The people of that region, Reggio Emilia, sought to recover from the devastation of dictatorship rule and the destruction caused by the war. One of the first areas of reform was the creation of schools for children, physically built and run by the parents and teachers in the community.

The Reggio Approach to early childhood education therefore, is borne out of the natural need for the community's involvement in alternative child education. It is committed to the creation of learning conditions which enhance and facilitate the development of the child's thought process by encouraging self expression of the communicative and cognitive languages. In doing so, the child's interests are the driving force for the curriculum. As such, the curriculum is not pre-determined, but rather develops over time and becomes self evident, based on the child's area of focus and concentration.

The following are the main principles which inspire the Reggio method:

* The child as protagonist: Children are capable and strong and form a triad of protagonists along with the teacher and the parent (Gandini, 1993).

* The child as collaborator: Education has to focus on the community rather than each child in isolation (Gandini, 1993, Lewin, 1995).

* The child as communicator: This is the focus on symbolic representation through words, movement, painting, building, collage, dramatic play, etc. Children have the right to use materials in order to communicate what they know, understand, wonder about, question, feel and imagine (Edwards et al., 1993).

* The environment as third teacher: The design and use of space to encourage encounters, communication, and relationship (Gandini, 1993).

* The t eacher as partner, nurturer, and guide: Teachers facilitate children's exploration and guide experiences of joint, open-ended discovery and problem solving (Edwards et al., 1993). To know how to plan and proceed teachers listen to and observe children closely, then ask questions to uncover ideas, hypotheses, and theories (Gandini, 1993).

* The teacher as researcher: Teachers work in pairs and retain strong collegial relations with other teachers. They engage in conversations about their work and the work of children. They consider themselves researchers preparing documentation of their work with children, who are also considered researchers (Gandini, 1993).

* The documentation as communication: Transcriptions, photographs, a nd other media documentation of children's work gives teachers (and parents) a way to evaluate their work, while at the same time shows the children that their work is valued (Gandini, 1993).

* The parent as partner: Parental participation is essential, and they play an active part in their children's learning experience. It helps teachers to view families not as a threat, but as an intrinsic element of collegiality and as the integration of different wisdoms (Spaggiari, 1993).

(some material taken from paper by Ian Fero - Reggio in North American Schools: To What Degree is Transfer Applicable? Semester II Independent Inquiry. © 2000 Ian Fero and EGallery , Faculty of Education, University of Calgary)