Curriculum planning and the concept of participation in the Reggio Emilia pedagogical approach

Abstract

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.

Self-Evaluation as a Factor of Quality Assurance in Education

“…Evidence can be based on research reports and studies or thematic reviews of research. An urgent issue concerns the quality of the evidence and which kinds of evidence we can trust (Marston & Watts, 2003;Thomas, 2004;Agalianos, 2006;Niemi, 2008;Hočevar, Kovač Šebart, & Štefanc, 2013). Educators must have basic knowledge of research methods and some competence to evaluate the relevance and quality of research results.…”

Art pedagogy in preschool education: opportunities and challenges

“…But it is worth noting that some authors insist that the freedom of participants' interaction in the educational process cannot be unlimited: preschool institutions act in accordance with the rules and norms, the main elements of which are established from the outside. Therefore, it cannot function as if teachers, parents and children have no restrictions except those with which they have decided and with whom they agree [8]. In addition, the implementation of the Reggio approach with all its obvious advantages can be associated with a number of difficulties.…”

The Pluralisation of Family Life: Implications for Preschool Education

“…Professional autonomous actions are, therefore, not independent of the binding formal framework; quite the contrary, formal provisions protect participants in preschool education from professional autonomy turning into educators' unprofessional arbitrariness, on the one hand, and from parents, preschool management, state ministries or anybody else interfering in professional decisions, on the other. In this sense, such provisions are far from being an obstacle to professional work in preschools, which seems to be quite a common presupposition (see, e.g., Batistič-Zorec & Hočevar, 2012;Hočevar, Kovač Šebart & Štefanc, 2013).…”