Basic Principles
The Reggio Emilia philosophy is a continually evolving dynamic process defined and refined by its primary stakeholdersteachers, children, parents, and the community. It is grounded in an image of children as innately competent and powerful with the right to a stake in decision making about their learning. Malaguzzi drew from the ideas of John Dewey about active and meaningful learning and from the constructivist theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky in particular, as well as Montessori, Bronfenbrenner, and the social psychologists.
According to Malaguzzi, education for young children is built on relationships (1993). The concept of reciprocity is a key element to building, maintaining, and transforming relationships between teachers, children, the environment, and the community (Gandini, 1993). Reciprocity can be likened to a game of catchcommunications and interactions are tossed like a ball between adults and children in a gentle, playful exchange that creates meaning (Rankin, 1992). Reggio Emilia teachers are never in a hurry to push children through exploration and conversation about their ideas.
Communication is essential to the reciprocal process of relationship building. In the eyes of Reggio Emilia teachers, it takes many forms from which children should be free to choose at any time to convey their ideas and express themselves. This idea gave root to the phrase “100 languages of children,” which became the title of the first book published about the Reggio Emilia approach (Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 1998). It is also the title of a continually changing exhibit of children’s work sponsored by the Reggio Emilia Children organization that has been traveling the world since 1981.
The Reggio Emilia curriculum is an emergent curriculum, meaning that topics of study and time frames are fluid and not predetermined. They are driven instead by the interests, questions, and reflections of children and teachers as they interact with each other and the environment.
Ideas for long-term inquiries (projects) come from three sources: children’s personal experiences, school experiences, and “provocations”events structured by teachers to generate interest and curiosity. Teachers establish general goals; they then plan by predicting what might happen next and prepare accordingly.