An online symposium connecting theory and practice in Australian education contexts in response to the principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach®
LAUNCH DATE: SATURDAY 19 OCTOBER 2024 – ONLINE PRE-RECORDED DIALOGUE SESSIONS
Viewing access will be available for registered participants until Sunday 17 November 2024.
Guest Presenter: Dr Jane Merewether
Introductory Presentation: "Research as an Everyday Pedagogical Practice"
In the municipal infant-toddler and preschools in Reggio Emilia, research transcends traditional boundaries of education, transforming them into dynamic spaces of inquiry and discovery. In this introductory presentation for the 2024 REAIE Australian Research Symposium, Dr Jane Merewether will explore how research, viewed as an everyday and relational practice, lies at the heart of Reggio Emilia’s educational philosophy. Children and teachers alike are empowered as active researchers, engaging collaboratively to construct knowledge and meaning. In this way, research fosters continuous innovation and deepens understandings of childhood and learning. By drawing parallels with academic research methodologies such as participatory, ethnographic, and action research, Dr Merewether will discuss how research in schools and early learning settings enriches educational experiences, fosters creativity, critical thinking, and community engagement.
Dr Jane Merewether (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood and Indigenous/Cultural Studies at Murdoch University, Western Australia. Drawing on many years of experience as an early childhood teacher and a long-term engagement with the educational project of Reggio Emilia, Jane is interested in education for climate-changed environments. She deploys participatory methodologies to conduct ecologically focussed research which explores children’s relations with materials, places, and nonhuman others. Jane’s research, scholarship and teaching is informed by the entanglements of childhood studies, Indigenous perspectives, feminist new materialisms, and environmental humanities.
This event is an opportunity for anyone who has delighted in, documented and developed closer links between theory and practice by observing children’s engagement with graphic languages.
Children use graphic languages to build knowledge, explore ideas and extend their relationships with others and their environment – making their everyday research visible. Graphic languages provide us with a window into children’s thinking and theory making; they can be especially informative when viewed through a research lens.
We invite you to join us to celebrate the complexity and richness of graphic languages as a strategy for learning within the Australian educational context.
