Reggio Emilia As Cultural Activity Theory in Practice

THEORY INTO PRACTICE, 46(1), 5–13 Rebecca S. New Reggio Emilia As Cultural Activity Theory in Practice This article situates Reggio Emilia’s municipally Oregono? Reggio What? funded early childhood program within the city’s And Who Is Emilia? cultural traditions of resistance and collaboration and considers what it is about this highly localized VER THE PAST 2 DECADES, the name of this program that is appealing and useful to contempo- OItalian city has become, for many, the gold rary school reform initiatives. Five features of standard for quality early childhood education. Reggio Emilia’s approach to early education are Reggio Emilia, long associated with the famous described: an interpretation of teachers as re- cheese it produces with its neighbor Parma, is now searchers, curriculum as long-term projects, the a moniker for its equally famous municipal pro- role of symbolic languages in child development gram for children ages 0 to 6. The words Reggio and advocacy, the role of the environment, and an Emilia represent more, however, than a symbol of interpretation of parents as partners in the educa- status and quality. Even as it has joined other name tional enterprise. Other features of the city’s hard brand approaches to an early childhood curricu- work—specifically, its capacity to make ideas visi- lum (Montessori, Bank Street, High Scope), the ble and its emphasis on relations among adults as nickname Reggio has become a catalyst for con- well as children—are identified as central to Reg- versations about a society’s responsibility to its gio Emilia’s continued influence on the field. The youngest citizens. For some, the city’s rapid rise to article concludes with a proposal to consider schools acclaim represents an unwelcome and increas- as cites where reform initiatives can be informed by ingly globalized hegemony regarding children’s principles and practices from Reggio Emilia. early care and education. For others, the city’s servizi per l’infanzia (early childhood services) highlight previously unimagined and rarely real- Rebecca S. New is Associate Professor of Child De- ized potentials of children and teachers to learn to- velopment and Early Childhood Education in the gether, the rights of families to participate, and the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at responsibilities of a community to support such Tufts University. Correspondence should be addressed to Rebecca collaborative engagement. Beyond this, Reggio S. New, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Develop- Emilia demonstrates the power of creative and ment, Tufts University, 105 College Avenue, Medford, critical thinking, especially when helped along by MA 02155. E-mail: [email protected] courage, charisma, and good timing. 5 Reggio Emilia For those unfamiliar with the city and its work, nicipal preschool in 1963 and played a leadership this issue serves as an invitation to join conversa- role in the establishment, in 1968, of Italy’s na- tionsthathavebeenongoingintheUnitedStatesfor tional system of early childhood services. thepast2decades1 aboutwhatReggioEmiliahasto Over the next decade, as they worked closely offer to the theory and practice of early childhood with colleagues in other municipalities committed education. For those already familiar with this to public early childhood services, the Reggiani Italian approach to early childhood education, (citizens of Reggio Emilia) remained focused on there is more to contemplate; this special issue de- their goal of creating a never-before-imagined en- scribes explorations of Reggio-Emilian principles vironment for children. Inspired by a belief in the and practices that have generated new insights into need to design a new kind of school for a new kind the means and meanings of collaborative inquiry of future, Reggio Emilia citizens engaged in regu- and ethical praxis. This article begins by mov- lar debates about the need for community-wide ing quickly beyond the celebrity status of Reggio collaboration and innovation. The results of their Emilia’s name to consider its epistemological ori- efforts can be found in the qualities now associ- ginsandtoponderhowitisthatsuchhighlyparticu- ated with Reggio Emilia’s approach to early child- larized ideas could grow and develop in one setting hood education. The quantity of services also ex- and then be dispersed around the world where they panded; by the late 1970s, more than a dozen have taken root and flourished in diverse but hospi- municipally funded preschools as well as infant– tablesoils.Thearticleconcludeswithsomeconjec- toddler centers were scattered across the city. To- tures about how lessons from Reggio Emilia might day, Reggio Emilia has more than three dozen inform our understanding of and improve our ef- scuole (preprimary schools) and nidi (infant–tod- forts at school reform. dler centers) serving approximately half the city’s population of young children. It is no surprise to those familiar with the city that one of their schools Reggio Emilia: Small Town, Big Ideas would be selected as “the best in the world” (“The 10 Best Schools in the World,” 1991). Even as The groundwork for what is now referred to as most Italians decried the hyperbole, they also ac- “the Reggio Emilia approach” (Edwards, Gandini, knowledge Reggio Emilia’s reputation of putting & Forman, 1993, 1998) is deeply rooted in the its best efforts into its initiatives. As pointedly town’s long history of resistance to social injustice noted by a school administrator in the neighbor and its alliance with Italy’s socialist and commu- city of Parma, the citizens of Reggio Emilia can be nist parties (New, 1993). The more obvious ori- remarkably persistent—sono proprio tosti! (“they gins can be traced back to a time shortly after are really stubborn!”)—when they come up with World War II, when working parents claimed what they consider a good idea. Reggio Emilia had abandoned buildings and petitioned the city to more than one good idea, and they wanted to share help them build new schools for their young chil- their understandings with others. dren. Wanting more than the traditional custodial Of the many features of Reggio Emilia’s work care, parents found an eloquent spokesman in the that have attracted attention and challenged con- form of Loris Malaguzzi, who was inspired by temporary interpretations of early childhood ed- their strong sense of purpose and soon joined their ucation, five are central to their success. The efforts. Parents declared their desire for schools following brief description situates these charac- where children were taken seriously and where teristics within their Italian context and highlights even the youngest could acquire the skills and val- their affinity to central tenets of sociocultural ac- ues of collaboration and critical thinking neces- tivity theory: the concept of teachers as learn- sary to a free and democratic society. Aided by ers, progettazione (long-term project work) as a Malaguzzi’s vision of childhood as rich with unre- curriculum vehicle, children’s multiple symbolic alized potentials and building on collaborative tra- languages as culturally constructed modes of dis- ditions, Reggio Emilia opened the city’s first mu- course, the physical environment as a develop- 6 New Reggio Emilia As Cultural Activity Theory in Practice mental niche, and parental involvement as a form with children’s efforts to understand something of civic engagement. about the physical or social worlds (“How does the fountain work?”), address a practical proposition (“Let’s make a water wheel!”), or explore a philo- Teachers As Learners sophical dilemma (“Can an enemy become a The 1968 Italian law proclaiming preschool as friend?”). As hypotheses are posed, teachers cre- a right for 3- to 5-year-old children also described ate conditions in which children can explore and these environments as “laboratories for teachers.” test those ideas, and frame new hypotheses. As a In part due to the absence of any preservice way of keeping everyone, adults as well as chil- teacher education for teachers of young children dren, alert to the processes and discoveries of this in Italy,2 this notion of schools as learning envi- sort of learning experience, teachers document— ronments for adults was translated by Reggio that is, they collect and analyze extensive data, in- Emilia into a form of professional development in- cluding artifacts of children’s work, transcripts of extricable from other key elements of their early conversations, and images of children’s activities. childhood services. Throughout the early period Such an integration of curriculum content and of program evolution, Reggio Emilian teachers pedagogical inquiry illustrates the Vygotskian explored the ideas of American philosophers principle that learning leads development, and Dewey and Hawkins, among others, as they con- highlights the potentials of conditions in which tributed to a pedagogy of collaborative inquiry in- children engage in problem solving “under adult volving children as well as adults. Along with col- guidance or in collaboration with more capable leagues in other Italian cities, educators in Reggio peers” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). To those who mar- Emilia have since explored Italian traditions of vel at the sophisticated understandings children documentation and discussione (conversations demonstrate in their project work, it is clear that characterized by debate and negotiation)—in the cultural activity of proggettazione functions as which teachers observe, record, share,

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