History
After World War II, villagers near Reggio Emilia built a preschool by selling war materials; teacher Loris Malaguzzi joined and from 1963 helped build a municipal system. A 1991 Newsweek feature on the Diana school brought global attention.
Principles
- Competent child: a citizen with rights who constructs knowledge.
- Hundred languages: thinking expressed through drawing, clay, light, movement and more.
- Progettazione: flexible project planning that follows children's interests.
- Documentation: photos, transcripts and work that make learning visible.
- Environment as third teacher: piazza, atelier, light and natural materials.
- Collaboration: co-teachers, atelierista, pedagogista, families and community.
Roots and comparison
Influenced by Dewey, Piaget and Vygotsky and allied with constructivism, it resembles the project approach but emphasises community philosophy over phases, and is hard to transplant without its local context.
References
- Edwards, C., Gandini, L., & Forman, G. (Eds.). (2012). The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation (3rd ed.). Praeger.
- Rinaldi, C. (2006). In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia: Listening, Researching and Learning. Routledge.
- Malaguzzi, L. (1993). For an education based on relationships. Young Children, 49(1), 9-12.
- Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (2013). Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (3rd ed.). Routledge.