REAIE is thrilled to announce our very special keynote presenters from Reggio Emilia and Australia for the 2019 Conference

Paola Strozzi was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy where she still lives and works. After receiving her degree as an elementary teacher in 1973, she studied in Florence at the Special School of Social Services from 1972 to 1976. From 1970 until 1980 she worked as a teacher at the municipal infant-toddler centre “Arcobaleno” in Reggio Emilia.

From 1980 she worked as a teacher at “Diana” municipal preschool in Reggio Emilia. Between 1999 to 2003, at the Diana School, she was in charge of teaching a child with autism. She attended conferences and seminars about autism in Italy, sometimes as a speaker. She also attended a Summer Institute on The Denver Model for Autism at the JKK Centre of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Centre in July 2002.

In February 2004, during the International Conference “Crossing Boundaries” she was jointly responsible for the organisation of three concurrent sessions: “Making Learning Visible, the Languages of Evaluation and Assessment”, “A Difference in Ethics or an Ethic of Differences” and “Sciences among Research, Poetry and Beauty”. From 2004 to 2006 she worked at the Documentation and Educational Research Centre of the Istituzione Scuole e Nidi d’infanzia of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia.

She graduated in 2007 with Scienze della Formazione Primaria from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia with a research paper on “The point of view coordination at preschool” with Prof. M. G. Bartolini Bussi. From 2007 she worked as a pedagogista of the Pedagogical Coordinating team of the Istituzione Scuole e Nidi d’Infanzia of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia.

She collaborates with Reggio Children (International centre for the Defence and Promotion of the Rights and Potential of All Children) for educational documentation, seminars and exchanges in Italy and abroad.

Paola Strozzi’s essays can be found in the books “Making Learning Visible, Children as Individual and Group Learners” published by Reggio Children September 2001; “Advisories”, published by Reggio Children September 2002, in the magazines “Bambini” May and June 2002, “Diario” special edition about school, April 2004. In English she published “Construction and Representation of Space in 5-Year-Old Children” in the Handbook of Child Development & Early Education edited by O.A. Barbarin and B. H. Wasik Guilford Press New York, 2009.

Cinzia was born in Reggio Emilia. She graduated in Education and she has been working for the network of preschools and infant-toddler centres, the Istituzione of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia since 2000.

In 2006 she began working as a teacher in the preschool Diana.

She has been involved as a lecturer in professional development initiatives in Italy and in Reggio Emilia during study groups with participants from international contexts.

Ambelin Kwaymullina is an Aboriginal writer, illustrator and law academic who comes from the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. She works across a range of contexts to help create respectful engagement with Indigenous peoples and stories. Her latest novel, Catching Teller Crow, won the Victorian Premiers Literary Award and the Aurelias Award.

Dr Marie Martin is an advocate for early childhood education and care, children and childhood. Having taught children from 6 months to 16 years, Marie joined Meerilinga Young Children’s Foundation as a provider of professional development and parent education. After completing her PhD in facilitation, Marie treated herself to a study tour to Reggio Emilia, consolidating her reading of and the research behind the philosophy and practice of the municipal Schools. Subsequently, Marie became a private consultant, continuing her work with early childhood educators, facilitating organisational development, undertaking research and writing educational materials in support of the Western Australian Curriculum Framework, Fundamental Movement Skills, Count Us In, Kids Helpline’s Peer Skills Programme, the Aussie Lunch Box programme, Goodbye Graffiti and Good Food for New Arrivals.

Marie is currently Head of School for the Schools of Early Learning, overseeing the management, educational programme and training of the five, soon to be six, early childhood education and care centres of the Giambazi family.

Dr Stefania Giamminuti a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education, Curtin University. She is renowned internationally as a scholar and researcher of the Reggio Emilia educational project.