I continue to reflect on my Reggio trip and think about how I can implement the learning in my own context.
I have always believed in working with parents as partners. However, after my trip to Reggio, I am forced to re-evaluate my stance. Partner is defined by Google as 'a person who takes part in an undertaking with another or others, especially in a business or firm with shared risks and profit'. I definitely revel when parents share their child's success with me and I choose to believe that I have a part in that success. But how much of the risks do I really share with the parents? Children stay with us only for a year or few years in an international school context! Do I really take ownership of the risks? How much time do I invest in learning about the parents' and children's contexts other than the 'Tell me about your child' form at the beginning and incidentals that I gain over the teaching year interacting with the child? How much time do I invest as a school leader in explaining parents - who we are - versus working with them in true sense of partnership? What expertise do parents bring that I can learn and work with? I continue to ponder on these questions.
Authentic parent partnerships are very visible in Reggio schools. One of my wonderful experiences was the trip to the Reggio Primary school and learning about how the parents and extended community were involved in the school right from the beginning. The design of the school was planned and executed together by educators, extended community members and parents. Expertise of parents as architects, as interior designers, as experts in construction etc was used. The school is a stunning example of a 21st century school. The flexi-environments with open and transparent learning areas are used not only by students but also by teachers for professional development sessions, reflection sessions, parent meetings, dialogue with the extended community, etc. Areas are not restricted or treated as only for children or only for adults. Imagine the sense of ownership where parents and teachers have helped construct furniture, planned learning spaces and even organised materials for learning! Though inviting parents to plan and construct a new building is not possible in all contexts, more so in a private school context, the concept of inviting parents for a dialogue in the setting up of learning spaces certainly offers rich possibilities.
John Dewey talked about schools as “miniature communities” that mirrored the social relations and activities of the larger society in which they were set. In Reggio Emilia, the image of the child as a competent, capable individual in an environment which mirrors the real communities and is not 'dumbed down', offers flexibility and opportunities for learners of all ages. Schools are not institutions where teachers 'teach' the students. Schools are places of learning. The teachers as researchers and learners along with students, parents and other staff members co-construct knowledge. All individuals including parents are learners and teachers, and that is a powerful context. This is a stance in sync with the International Baccalureate that changed the term Student Profile to Learner Profile some years ago. This powerful lifelong learning can happen only when the democratic values are genuinely ingrained in the culture of a school.
I get reminded of an incident that happened years ago. After one of our Parent workshops, one of the parents (who had challenged a number of our approaches to teaching and learning during the workshop) asked my co-presenter, "How do you know that the way you are teaching (inquiry-based approach) is right? After all you learned in a traditional classroom and you have turned out fine." I remember having over heard this conversation and I remember my own emotions when I heard this. From getting surprised to defensive and getting ready to spill a whole load of theories, to thinking of this as an uninformed question, I went through a gamut of reactions before composing myself and talking to the parent about our philosophy, the rationale and the reasons for this. I felt that I had handled the situation well. As this was discussed over the coffee machine later on, the initial response of the teachers was that of incredulity! How could the parent ask such a question? We are after all trained teachers and know what we are talking about!
I still think about this interaction and years later I still remember the situation as well as my reaction very clearly! However, I can now see the situation in a different light. My philosophy and my practices were not in full sync. Where I clearly wanted to believe that I was partnering the parents in learning together, my stance came from the position of authority and that of 'knowing better' than the parent. I was trying to tell him what was right for his child! I did not try to engage his perspective and knowledge to co-construct the understanding of where we were in place and time in terms of current context of education and the family's needs.
Some of the powerful images from my Reggio Emilia trip play in my head over and over again. One of the videos I saw was that of a meeting between the parents and teachers one month after their children joined the infant-toddler centre. This was not a session for teachers to tell the parents what to do, how to support their child at home, or even how their child was faring. Instead this was a session for parents to talk about how they felt in this one month. Parent shared their emotions of pride, of pain at seeing their child emotional in the first few days, of separation anxiety on their part, challenges with routines, etc. The relief was evident in the faces of the parents who were new to the school; they shared a sense of camaraderie with their peers. A parent teared up and was comforted by the others. Parents who had older children and had been through the experience were able to offer support as well as strategies to the new parents to cope - from having coffee mornings, to taking more time for themselves, to using the time to enroll in a course, etc. Teachers equally contributed to the discussion. They shared their anxiety about the new parents and children, their times, their feelings and emotions. There were parents taking notes, teachers taking notes and the whole atmosphere was one of sharing and learning. Teachers learnt more about the parents' perspectives and built on their own understanding of where parents' questions came from, where the uncertainties arose and how they could build better communication. The experience helped the parents and teachers come together as a mini-community. This democratic, open dialogue with families helped establish a culture of learning and genuine partnership. I was blown away by this experience!
As teachers we often worry about the parents not understanding us and generally talk to them as experts, at times even offering parenting suggestions. The partnership dynamics often tend to become lop-sided, unless time is taken to learn as much as to teach.
The values and threads in Reggio - from the image of the child, to environment as the third teacher, to the pedagogy of listening, to the democratic values - are all intertwined. Strong partnerships need good listening. I think again of my own experience above and about how could I have responded to the parent were we to meet again or if I faced a similar question in the future. I would offer the parent a listening ear followed by a time to discuss and work together. I would seek to not only explain my stance but understand his stance and questions. I would move away from bracing myself to 'handle situations' versus seeking that opportunity to learn about the root and context of the question. More often than not, I tend to use my belief and practice in the pedagogy of listening only with the young learners. I will now make a conscientious effort to extend this to all around me as I get ready to learn from them.
Parents as partners has taken on a new meaning for me after my Reggio experience. Perhaps I will not have an opportunity to build a school with the students' parents sometime in the near future, but I will definitely try to be a much more open-minded listener to engage in a genuine partnership with the parents.
