Reggio Emilia pedagogy

Päiväkoti Ruusu, a Finnish experience

2010-11-23T03:15:00.000-08:00

Kristiina Juovonen explains us the day's structure.

We visited Päiväkoti Ruusu and had an interview with Kristiina Juvonen, one of the teachers (she has graduated 30 years ago as a Montessori kindergarden teacher in Helsinki and she is working from 10 years within these premises). In Finland there are different institutions that use the Reggio Emilia approach.
Children and their family, a project done to get closer the unites: parents and children.

The space is arranged with big mirrors, windows that keep the all school to breath as an organism.

Project about identity: Moomins help to understand identity, family and nature.

The atelier: a space with materials, a space to create and assemble things together.

The teathre, a place to dance, perform arts, sing, do gymnastic, play instruments...

Documentation is a methodology largerly used to keep track of children, a tool of sharing information with parents, a dialogue starting point between teachers and parents, teachers and children, children and parents.

The hundred languages of children

2010-11-17T05:16:00.000-08:00

Pedagogy of change

2010-11-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

Not only the development of children is a process, but so is the pedagogic concept and practice itself! Contrary to Steiner and Montessori pedagogy, Reggio pedagogy aims to be a project under constant development where goals and purpose are open and revisable.

Reality should not be avoided but always be considered. As the cultural reality is always changing over time and it can be very different in different places or situations, pedagogy should be always open to adapt to those. Children, parents and teachers, as well as all other workers in the institution, need to be included in this process. Constant communication, discussion, common activities are necessary to guarantee this inclusion.

Because:

Education and upbringing are a responsibility of the whole community!

Reggio pedagogy opposes the privatization of upbringing. The responsibilities do not lie only with the families. The participation and inclusion of parents, grandparents and kindergarten team should be guaranteed through meetings and workshops in informal atmosphere. Members from the local community are also invited to participate for example in celebrations, those can be seasonal but also to celebrate the finishing of a big project.

Through council meetings parents are also directly involved in the management of the kindergarten. The council is elected every two years and consists to a minimum of 50% of parents and, to a small extend, also interested local citizens. The other members of the council are kindergarten staff. The council is forming work groups that take care of for example design of the pedagogic environment, selection and admission of new children, external relations of the institution or specific pedagogical-didactic topics like play-material or game development.

Final goal of this participatory pedagogy is the emerging of a new culture of upbringing, not only in the particular families but in all families.

The image of the child in Reggio pedagogy

2010-11-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

Children are creators of own cultures. Their ability to learn and explore exists in them from birth on. They have the right to actively develop their own identity, autonomy and social abilities and follow their own curiosity and learning interests.

They do not need to be told the solution to a problem but they are free to explore them on their own. Children examine and discover their environment through their hundred languages and make connections between their experiences.

Function of Reggio pedagogy: To support the children to develop their theories and in their search for questions and answers but not give them ready-made solutions!

Keyword: Time! Children need time for their individual and group projects so no tight limits should be set or projects aborted before they are finished. Children need time to make experiences and experiment with different possible solutions. They need to be free to explore and discover within their own rhythm and decide on their own the time frame for an experience or project.

It is often claimed that children loose interest in one activity after a few days but Reggio children have projects that sometimes last for many months.

Groups homogenous in age: Reggio pedagogy prefers to have groups with same-aged children (so that there are not all the time younger kids coming and older kids leaving). This is important in order for them to have common experiences and a group identity that gives them a feeling of security and stability. This is supposed to foster children’s confidence and make it easier for them to communicate with children outside their group, because communication, exchange of information and experiences in between the groups is also needed and encouraged. This is supported by the way the space in Reggio institutions is organised.

Through work in small groups children realize that the discussion with others is a huge resource. Sharing knowledge, theories, ideas and creativity they expand each others viewpoints but also challenge, correct and develop them. At a very early stage stereotypes and clichés, that people otherwise carry with them into their adult life, can so be questioned.

Everything is a movement: Important is not the final product but the process of the child’s learning and experiencing. The product can never be “wrong” or “incomplete” but they have their own quality. Adults can provide new or alternative experiences but should not correct or lecture the child.

Cultural Inclusion: Documentation of the children’s projects or situations on “speaking walls”: Children learn that their processes are important and that they are part of the community and part of their culture.

Cultural inclusion also means that no topic or form of media is excluded. Children cannot be isolated from the problems, questions and development of their environment; they are part of their reality. That is why they should have a right to explore them. For example new media or technology can give new possibilities for children to express themselves which should not be denied. Or a TV series that is part of children’s reality can become a topic for a project.

The Reggio Emilia philosophy in Finland

2010-11-16T03:44:00.000-08:00

Loris Malaguzzi thinking reflects on social constructivism as:

knowledge requires an active construction by the subject;
it is collocated in the concrete context;
it is shaped through particular forms of collaboration and negotiation.

The system evolved from a parent cooperative movement into a city-run system that exercises a leadership role in Italy and throughout Europe, and now increasingly in Asia, Australia, North America, and other parts of the world.
The Reggio Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, is known as a source of innovation and reflection (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 1999). Programs in Reggio are family centered and serve children at infant-toddler and preschool levels. Reggio Emilia is not a formal model, with defined methods, teacher certification standards, and accreditation processes. Instead, educators in Reggio Emilia speak of their evolving "experience" and see themselves as a provocation and reference point, a way of engaging in dialogue starting from a strong and rich vision of the child (as Edwards, Gandini, and Forman put it).

Study case: a kindergarden in Finland
The kindergarden in Perustie 40, in Helsinki uses the Malaguzzi pedagogical method.
We contacted Arja Jokinen, brilliant and pleasant director of the school, who will accompany us in this exploration trip.
Exploration, as the children are continuously doing in the Reggio Emilia approach.
On Monday we have reserved a time span for our meeting.
We are gonna visit them and make an interview to help us understanding the critical points of the methodology chosen.

Basic concepts:
How did the idea of applying this pedagogical method came? How did the Reggio Emilia method reached Finland? When did it happen (in Italy they started in the sixties)?

Main idea / principles:
What is the parents´role and and the dynamics created between parents-children-teachers?
In this perspectives, what are the power relationships evolving and how they are created?
How is the space organized within the premises?

Working methods:
What kind of exercises / working methods do you use?
What is the formation of the teachers?
How do you document the children´s work?

Evaluation:
What are the main differences from the Steiner´s perspective?
What are the added values comparing to the other kindergardens / other methods?

Networking / events:
What kind of events / formation is available in Finland for this kind of approach?
Do you collaborate with the Reggio Emilia main institution in Italy?

We are very excited to go exploring this new territory...

The hundred is there

2010-11-16T03:39:00.000-08:00

A bird, as Matteo, saw it during a workshop of exploration of the birds.

No way.
The hundred is there.
The child is made of one hundred.
The child has a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
a hundred, always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds to discover
a hundred worlds to invent
a hundred worlds to dream.
The child has a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and Christmas.
They tell the child
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says
“No way – The hundred is there.”

Loris Malaguzzi