Loris Malaguzzi was one of the most important figures in 20th century early childhood education, achieving world-wide recognition for his educational ideas and his role in the creation of municipal schools for young children in the Italian city of Reggio Emilia, the most successful example ever of progressive, democratic and public education. Despite Malaguzzi’s reputation, very little of what he wrote or said about early childhood education has been available in English. This book helps fill the gap, presenting for the first time in English, writings and speeches spanning 1945 to 1993, selected by a group of his colleagues from an archive established in Reggio Emilia. They range from short poems, letters and newspaper articles to extended pieces about Malaguzzi’s early life, the origins of the municipal schools and his ideas about children, pedagogy and schools. This material is organised into five chronological chapters, starting at the end of World War Two and ending just before his death, with introductions to each chapter providing background, including the historical context, the main events in Malaguzzi’s life and the rationale for the selection of documents. The book provides a unique insight into the background, thinking and work of Malaguzzi, revealing, in his own words, how his thinking developed, how he moved between theory and practice, how he border-crossed many disciplines and subjects, and how he combined many roles ranging from administrator and campaigner to researcher and pedagogue. Academics, students and practitioners alike will find this landmark publication provides rich insights into his life and work.

Product Description: This book is about bringing the education we want for our own children to all. It is focused on a set of strongly held beliefs that drive the actions of educators every day. Each chapter of the book is focused on a single belief and invites readers to consider what they can do to help children attend schools based on the true, authentic expressions of their teachers' beliefs...read more

Through a series of exquisite encounters with children, and through a lucid opening up of new aspects of poststructuralist theorizing, Bronwyn Davies opens up new ways of thinking about, and intra-acting with, children. This book carefully guides the reader through a wave of thought that turns the known into the unknown, and then slowly, carefully, makes new forms of thought comprehensible, opening, through all the senses, a deep understanding of our embeddedness in encounters with each other and with the material world. This book takes us into Reggio-Emilia-inspired Swedish preschools in Sweden, into the author’s own community in Australia, into poignant memories of childhood, and offers the reader insights into: new ways of thinking about children and their communities; the act of listening as emergent and alive; ourselves as mobile and multiple subjects; the importance of remaining open to the not-yet-known. Defining research as diffractive, and as experimental, Davies’ relationship to the teachers and pedagogues she worked with is one of co-experimentation. Her relationship with the children is one in which she explores the ways in which her own new thinking and being might emerge, even as old ways of thinking and being assert themselves and interfere with the unfolding of the new. She draws us into her ongoing experimentation, asking that we think hard, all the while delighting our senses with the poetry of her writing, and the stories of her encounters with children.

Product Description: Loris Malaguzzi is recognised as the founder of the extraordinary programmes of preschool education that developed after the war in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Deeply embedded in the cultures and communities they serve, these unique preschools have justifiably become famous throughout the world...read more

This English translation of an educational diary follows a child’s first weeks in a Reggio Emilia infant-toddler program. Professionals have contributed essays on using these diaries as models for observation and family-oriented programming. Laura, the child in the diary, is now fully grown and has also written an essay reflecting on her Reggio Emilia experience.

Product Description: Why does the city of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy feature one of the best public systems of early education in the world? This book documents the comprehensive and innovative approach that utilizes the "hundred languages of children" to support their well-being and foster their intellectual development...read more

Product Description: Reggio Emilia is a city of 130,000 people in the prosperous and progressive 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 (Newsweek, December 2, 1991)...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Reggio Emilia is a city of 130,000 people in the prosperous and progressive 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 (Newsweek, December 2, 1991)...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)