The article analyses two defining assumptions about the Reggio Emilia (RE) approach: the absence of a planned curriculum designed in advance as a basis for educational work and children's participation in preschools. The authors demonstrate that different approaches to planning preschool education have advantages and disadvantages, which we cannot avoid, even if we decide against curriculum planning. They believe it is more reasonable to insist on the convergent use of the strategies of curriculum planning, which helps maintain their advantages, while providing safeguards against their shortcomings. When discussing children's (and parents') participation in preschool, the authors emphasise that such participation has objective limits, which the RE approach fails to address. In preschools it is not only such rules that apply which have been agreed upon and where it has been possible to reach a consensus. We should not overlook the fact that the preschool is an institution which functions according to the rules and norms whose important elements are imposed from the outsidethat is, they do not come from the institution's management, its professional workers or parents. Preschool, therefore, cannot function as if its teachers, parents and children had no limits other than those they decide and agree upon themselves.Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 23:44 26 December 2014 forma de elementos de suma importanciaes decir, no son estipuladas ni por la dirección del centro ni por los maestros o los padres. Es por eso que los centros de educación infantil no pueden funcionar como si no existiesen otras limitaciones para los maestros, padres y niños, aparte de las que se han establecido y acordado entre ellos.

The present article examines the changes in Slovene preschools subsequent to Slovenia’s independence in 1991. In the socialist period, the national education programme for preschools was highly structured, goaland content-oriented and subject to schoolization. The Curriculum for Preschools (1999) brought conceptual changes towards education “based on the child” and the process approach, as well as giving more autonomy to preschool teachers and their assistants. In the empirical study, we examine changes in planning and evaluating educational work compared to the past. The results show that the majority of professionalworkers have reduced the high level of structure and rigidity in planning, and that there is better cooperation between preschool teachers and teachers’ assistants. Unlike in the past, most professional workers regularly evaluate their educational work. As the data was gathered in two phases, before and after the training of professional workers in the Reggio Emilia concept, we also search for the (probably indirect) influences of this training. We conclude that after the training the participation of children in planning and evaluating educational work is higher.

SUMMARYThis article discusses rainbow families, families formed by one or two same-sex attracted persons raising a child or children. It examines the findings of different research studies undertaken internationally (primarily in the USA and Western Europe) focusing on whether children growing up in rainbow families differ from children growing up in other family forms. The research findings demonstrate that there are no statistically significant differences between children being raised by rainbow families and other family forms with regard to the formation of gender identity, gender roles, emotional and cognitive development, or psychological and behavioural adjustments. However, the health and well-being of children growing up in rainbow families does depend on the (fear of) stigmatization and discrimination against these children in society.

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The article presents preschool quality evaluation which is established in the Reggio Emilia pedagogical approach and which rejects evaluation on the basis of empirical data gathered through methodologically adequately prepared instruments. Such evaluation is supposed to be founded on universal norms formulated by experts, with quality being understood as the harmony of the services and practices measured by the norms. Through interpretations which use abstractions, categorizations and schemes, such quality evaluation is thought predominantly to classify and normalize (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2007). By contrast, preschool quality evaluation ought to build on the analyses and subjective interpretations of the documents that preschool teachers gather through their everyday documentation of the educational process and children's activities in preschools. It coherently follows the consideration which rejects a curriculum planned and structured in advance, as it is thought to follow goals, not children, thereby preventing children from being in the centre of the educational process. In the article we show that the evaluation of preschool quality which is based only on the presented subjective interpretation opens up a space for selective and partial considerations; quality evaluation - at least as far as the widespread network of public preschools in Slovenia is concerned - thus also needs to be implemented through suitably methodologically designed tools. Key words: documentation; evaluation; pedagogical approach Reggio Emilia; preschool education; quality; Slovenia.---Sažetak U članku je prikazano vrednovanje kvalitete predškolskih ustanova koje je utemeljeno unutar pedagoškog pristupa Reggio Emilia, a koje odbacuje vrednovanje na temelju empirijskih podataka prikupljenih s pomoću metodološki adekvatno pripremljenih instrumenata. Taj bi oblik vrednovanja trebao biti utemeljen na univerzalnim normama koje su oblikovali stručnjaci, pri čemu se pod kvalitetom podrazumijeva sklad usluga i prakse izmjerene prema određenim normama. Tumačenjem putem apstrakcija, kategorizacija i shema, od tog se oblika vrednovanja kvalitete ponajprije očekuje klasifikacija i normalizacija (Dahlberg, Moss, i Pence, 2007). Suprotno tomu, vrednovanje kvalitete predškolskih ustanova treba graditi na analizama i subjektivnim tumačenjima dokumenata koje odgojitelji prikupljaju u svakodnevnom dokumentiranju odgojno-obrazovnog procesa i dječjih aktivnosti u predškolskim ustanovama. Time se dosljedno prate razmišljanja koja odbacuju planirani i unaprijed strukturirani kurikul, budući da se smatra kako se na taj način prate ciljevi, a ne djeca, čime se djeci onemogućuje da budu u središtu odgojno-obrazovnog procesa. U članku ćemo pokazati da vrednovanje kvalitete predškolskih ustanova koje se temelji isključivo na iznesenim subjektivnim interpretacijama otvara prostor za selektivna i parcijalna razmatranja; vrednovanje kvalitete - barem što se tiče raširene mreže javnih predškolskih ustanova u Sloveniji - se stoga također treba provoditi uz pomoć odgovarajućih metodološki dizajniranih instrumenata.Ključne riječi: dokumentacija; kvaliteta; pedagoški pristup Reggio Emilia; predškolski odgoj i obrazovanje; Slovenija; vrednovanje.