Reggio Emilia is a city of 30,000 people in the Emilia Romagna region of northern Italy. Its municipal early childhood system has been recognized and acclaimed as one of the best systems of education in the world. The system has evolved a distinctive and innovative set of philosophical assumptions, curriculum and pedagogy, method of school organization, and design environments which, taken as a unified whole, is called the Reggio Emilia approach. This volume explores this approach and provides a forum in which noted Italian and North American educators and administrators explain its rationale and practice and demonstrate how its principles can be applied in classrooms in America and the rest of Europe. It should be of interest to early education teachers, education administrators and policy makers.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Starting points: no way - the hundred is there, Loris Malagazzi; introduction - background and starting points, Carolyn Edwards et al; what can we learn from Reggio Emilia? Lilian Katz. Part 2 Reggio Emilia's educators describe their program - interviews with Lella Gandini: history, ideas and basic philosophy, Loris Malaguzzi; the community-teacher partnership in the government of the schools, Sergio Spaggiari; projected curriculum constructed through documentation, Carlina Rinaldi; the role of the pedagogista, Trizianz Filippini; the role of the atelierista, Vea Vecchi; the voice of parents; photo essay; the intelligence of a puddle. Part 3 From theory to practice: educational and sharing spaces, Lella Gandini; partner, nurture and guide - the role of the teacher, Carolyn Edwards; children with special rights in the schools and infant-toddler centres of Reggio Emilia, Cathleen Smith.