Loris Malaguzzi

“Learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by; instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water. Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen learning and how to learn.”

Malaguzzi, L. 1998, ‘History, ideas and philosophy’, in Edwards, C. Gandini, L. and Forman, G. 1998, The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Approach, Ablex Publishing, Greenwich (p83).

“There is an inner voice that pushes children on, but this force is greatly multiplied when they are convinced that facts and ideas are resources, just as their friends and the adults in their lives are precious resources. It is especially at this point that children expect – as they have from the beginning of their life adventure – the help and truthfulness of grownups”.

Loris Malaguzzi (from the catalogue of the exhibit ‘The Hundred Languages of Children’)

“Our task is to help children communicate with the world using all their potential, strengths and languages, and to overcome any obstacle presented by our culture.” 

Loris Malaguzzi (from the catalogue of the exhibit ‘The Hundred Languages of Children’)

Carla Rinaldi and Peter Moss

Learning is not the transmission of a defined body of knowledge, what Malaguzzi refers to as a ‘small’ pedagogy. It is constructive, the subject constructing her or his own knowledge but always in democratic relationships with others and being open to different ways of seeing, since individual knowledge is always partial and provisional. From this perspective, learning is a process of constructing, testing and reconstructing theories, constantly creating new knowledge. Teachers as well as children are constantly learning. Learning itself is a subject for constant research, and as such must be made visible.

Rinaldi, C. and Moss, P. ‘What is Reggio?’, in Children in Europe: Celebrating 40 years of Reggio Emilia-the pedagogical thought and practice underlying the world renowned early services in Italy. March 2004. Scotland. Children in Scotland (p2)

Howard Gardner

“The early childhood centres in Reggio Emilia ‘stand as a stunning testament to human possibilities’.”

Howard Gardner, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Children in Europe, March 2004

Fiona Zinn

(The) Invited Speaker Series celebrates “the ways that Reggio Emilia has shaped the work and thinking of Australian educators and allowed them to make deep connections between children, culture and education”

Zinn, F. (2016). The Challenge, Volume 20, no. 2, August 2016. Hawthorn: Reggio Emilia-Australia Information Exchange Inc.