A colleague recently asked if I had come down from the Reggio Cloud 9 yet..... If she meant the land of Parmesan, Prosciutto and Prosecco... well...truthfully I am not. Every now and then I do remember the evening walk to a Piazza, any Piazza and taking in the sights, sounds, smells and eventually the taste of good quality 100 miles food! I would like to stay there for a while! :)
Talking of Reggio preschools and the professional experience, cloud 9 is the place I always was and will be. I would not ever attempt to sum up my Reggio Study Trip. It is not a one-off professional development session which I can recall using my notes and use when needed.
The Reggio experience can be best described as transformational. Had this trip been made in the initial periods of my teaching career, it would have been a major paradigm shift for me. However, after my experience with the PYP, and my interest as well as previous PD in the Reggio approach, this trip was a re-affirmation and loads of new learning within the same paradigm. It is transformational in any case, as the experience reaches out to the core of your philosophy, values and practices as an educator and either changes or adds to them.
Reggio Emilia, a small town, 2 and 1/2 hours drive from Milan, is a picturesque town with an arterial road called Via Emilia. Our group tour on the first day was conducted by a group of proud Reggio citizens who explained us with fervour, the history of the birthplace of the Italian flag, its rich cultural past and the best gelatto, pasta and pizza places and cafes in it! What struck me was that our guides were all volunteers, proud citizens who took great pride in the pre-schools and during the tour explained us points of interests where the Reggio pre-schools worked with the community and vice versa. I am yet to learn about any other city or town in the world, where the schools and the community have such a rich learning, working and evolving relationship.
The Reggio Emilia preschools started and continue to evolve in response to the needs of the community. As one of the key speaker in the trip said - " These schools are not a mere response to the family needs but also to the cultural and political needs of the area." What interests me is that the determination of what those needs are and how they will be catered to, is not left solely to the educators or the municipality but is based on a dialogue and sharing of ideas between the parents, the municipal council and the educators. This dialogue and genuine partnership is at the core of the Reggio Emilia education. Reggio pre-schools are truly the "Labs for life for democracy".
The democratic values of Reggio are evident everywhere. The pedagogical architecture of the new schools reflects the circular accessibility of the city (Reggio old city is kind of hexagonal!). The availability of community sharing spaces like the piazzas within schools facilitate sharing and dialogue in the environment. The buildings and the way they are used are reflective of their non-hierarchical and democratic values. In the school I visited (La Villetta), the 3 year olds' classrooms were at the same level as those for the 5 year olds' and the 4 year olds' rooms were on the higher level. There was a clear intention for the younger ones to learn from the older ones and the older students deepening the metacognition as they strive to explain concepts to their younger peers.
When I reflect back on most schools outside Reggio that I have been to, there has been a hierarchical placement of grade levels with usually the younger classes on a lower floors. The intentional mix of age groups is seldom a practice. Linear and hierarchical structures are commonly visible in many traditional schools with the admin office and/or the staff room being a space usually out of bounds for children.
Often spaces in schools become small islands which people personalise and start to own. This often results in individualised ownership rather than a democratic ownership. How many times do we as educators resist sharing our spaces for other purposes? Classrooms, staff rooms, office space, admin areas, kitchens, gardens and even the teacher's desk area within classrooms are often developed with different layers of accessibility for students, parents and even colleagues. These spaces are often deemed as spaces for 'privacy and confidentiality'. Often the breach of these is considered irresponsible and disrespectful and strongly defended with supposed reasons of safety, privacy and respect. These highly differentiated layers of accessibility build a culture of hierarchy. The Reggio schools are clear in this regard. The respect for individuals is extremely high and is visible in all interactions. Schools are community spaces for learning and dialogue and the democratic sharing of these spaces is visible. In the four Reggio schools I visited, almost all the spaces were commonly accessible and shared by the staff, parents and children for meeting, discussion, planning, eating as well as learning purposes! Though the staff worked in their areas, there was a culture of shared responsibility for all spaces in school.
The democratic values are ingrained deeply in all aspects of Reggio municipality pre-schools. In the Sole school I visited, the cook and the auxiliary staff were a part of the education team that met us. In these schools, the cooks not only maintain the kitchen but are an integral part of the school routine esp in the morning where parents come and drop their children in the infant toddler centres. They welcome the children, have a chat with the parents, discuss their child and also liaison with the teachers about children. They are responsible equally for managing and maintaining the environments. Interestingly in La Villetta, during one of the inquiries on digital landscapes, it was the cook who identified the children's interest and provided the scaffolding! I was also impressed to see that not only the teachers but the cooks and the auxiliary staff had mandated number of hours for work, for professional development and for working with the community in partnership.
Many schools (in particular the PYP) have started acknowledging the roles of the community members in education. I take pride in using our community members as primary resources during our units of inquiry. However, there is still a clear hierarchy and boundaries of the roles associated with particularly the support staff in schools - the cooks, cleaners, gardeners, office staff, nurses, etc. The roles of the support staff in Reggio schools have opened my eyes to the possibilities of rich learning when all roles are truly valued by all stakeholders in a school.
Democratic values are most visible in the teachers' role of co-constructing knowledge with the children. The open-mindedness of the teachers to learning more about children from children is awe-inspiring. The research has depths, possible only when the teachers' 'image of the child' as a competent capable individual is exceedingly strong. I spent hours talking to the teachers in some of these centres. Their belief about their own roles being at the same levels as the children's in the co-construction of the values and knowledge, was an amazing testimony to the deeply entrenched democratic value of children being citizens of the current times and not the future. The documentation of this co-construction of knowledge is a "public communication" that helps make visible to all including parents about the teaching and learning in the centre.
I continue to reflect on the strategic objective of education in the society. The democratic values at the heart of the philosophy and practices in Reggio is one of the most important take-aways for me from this study trip. What better way to ingrain and hone the democratic ideals in young learners and the community?
And the musings continue...
