Reggio Emilia Approach Overview

Since 1991, when Newsweek named the schools of Reggio Emilia among the 10 best in the world, interest in this Italian approach to education has grown worldwide. The Reggio Emilia philosophy and approach to early childhood education has developed and continues to evolve as a result of over 40 years of experience within a system of municipal infant-toddler centers and preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Parents, who started the schools in the 1940s, have continued their participation to ensure that the schools reflect the values of their community.

From the beginning, the late Loris Malaguzzi – a leader, philosopher, and innovator in education – who was then a young teacher guided and directed the energies of those parents and several teachers. Through many years of work with them, he developed an education based on relationship, which has become widely known and valued. The Reggio Emilia approach is built upon a solid foundation of connected philosophical principles and extensive experience. Educators in Reggio Emilia were inspired by many early childhood psychologists and philosophers, such as John Dewey, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, David Hawkins, Howard Gardner and Jerome Bruner.

Considering the enormous interest that educators from around the world show in the work done in the Reggio schools, the Italian Educators suggest that teachers and parents in each school, any school, anywhere, could in their own context reflect on these ideas, always keeping in focus the relationships and the learning that are in process locally to examine needs and strengths, thus finding possible ways to construct change.