Recently four of our educators attended the Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange biennial conference; Landscapes of Identity. We listened to two educators from Reggio Emilia in Italy, Maddalena Tedeschi and Maura Rovachi, speak passionately and thoughtfully about the progressive approach to early childhood education they are a part of.
The conference was two and a half days of challenging, progressive, insightful, inspiring, and at times uncomfortable perspectives on early childhood education.
We were challenged to recognise and reconstruct the identity of the individual within the context of the group
We were inspired by the incredible connection to community displayed by children, teachers and schools.
We wondered about the power of documentation to not only make learning visible, but to be the foundation for new learning.
We questioned our professional identity – “Who am I? Tell me that first” (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland). Who are early childhood educators anyway?
What will we do with the residual questions, wonderings, inspiration? We don’t yet know. But we are somehow changed.
Above all, we walked away with Maura’s words resonating;
“We can become a virus, infecting others by changing our point of view.”
So let’s go viral…