Listen to Lorraine Manuela, REANZ Trustee, owner of Tots Corner, in a Radio Waatea interview talking about the origins of Reggio Emilia, The Hundred Languages Exhibition and the REANZ Conference in October 2011.

Click to listen lorraine manuela

Listen to Part one: Brenda Soutar Part 1 of 3
Listen to Part two: Brenda Soutar Part 2 of 3
Listen to Part three: Brenda Soutar Part 3 of 3

Outline of the Programme Click here
Conference-programme

Conference

The Keynote speakers from Reggio Emilia will be Paola Strozzi - a pedagogista, and Evelina Reveberi - a teacher, both teachers have made substantial contributions to our understanding of the educational projects from Reggio Emilia through their work featured in “Making Learning Visible”. In addition, Paola was involved in “Everything has a Shadow Except Ants” and she features in “Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia”, the book by Vea Vecchi. They are both superb speakers.

Dates: Thursday 13^th, Friday 14^th & Saturday 15^th October 2011
Venue: St Cuthbert’s College, 122 Market Rd, Epsom, Auckland
Time: Registrations open at 3.30 pm on Thursday 13^th, conference starts at 5.00 pm
Friday & Saturday 9.00 am to 4.00 pm
Cost: $550.00 (includes exhibition entry; cocktails; lunch and morning tea)

Click here to register

July NewsletterREANZ Newsletter July 2 2011

One Day Seminar

This repeat of the keynote addresses presented by our international speakers is offered to teachers who are unable to attend the conference and will be held at St Cuthbert’s on:

Dates: Sunday 16^th October 2011 from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm
Venue: St. Cuthbert’s College, 122 Market Road, Epsom, Auckland
Cost:$220.00 per person
(includes entry into Exhibition, morning tea and lunch)

Click here to register

Evening Sessions

Wednesday 12^th October – The Pedagogy of Listening
Monday 17^th October – Pedagogical documentation
Tuesday 18^th October – Inspiring Environments
Wednesday 19^th October – The 100 Languages of Children

Cost: $55.00 per person (This includes a light supper and free entry into the exhibition)
Time: 6.30 pm to 9.00 pm
Venue: St. Cuthbert’s College, 122 Market Road, Epsom, Auckland

Free Public Lecture

With quest speaker Jan Millikan
‘Understanding The Pedagogy of Reggio Emilia’.

Date: Tuesday 11^th October
Time: 6.30 pm presentation,
come early at 5.30pm for a free veiwing of the exhibition or you may go after the presentation for a viewing of the exhibition.
Venue: St. Cuthbert’s College, 122 Market Road, Epsom, Auckland

Click here to register

The Hundred Languages of Children Exhibition

This is open to the public Tues 11th and Wed 12th 10am – 3pm
Thurs 13th 10am – 1.30pm (Conference delegates only after 1.30pm)
Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th 10am – 3pm
Mon 17th – Thurs 20th ^th October 2011 from 10.00 am – 3.00 pm

Cost: $5.00 per person
Venue: St. Cuthbert’s College, 122 Market Road, Epsom, Auckland

No registration needed

Centre Visits

These are offered to Conference delegates who live OUTSIDE the Auckland region (These visits are full no further registrations)

Date: Thursday, 13^th October 2011
Time: 9.30 am – 12.30 pm
Pick-up Point: St. Cuthbert’s College, 122 Market Road, Epsom, Auckland.
Cost: $55 per person (This includes transport and morning tea)

As accommodation is going to be scarce in Auckland, due to the Rugby World Cup, we urge you to contact your relatives and friends to book a bed now.
There will be limited accommodation at St Cuthbert’s College.
More details on registration to come soon.

Check out this link: http://zerosei.comune.re.it/inter/100exhibit.htm

 “We have the knowledge and the wisdom to change; early years teachers can take the lead”

Join Janet Robertson, Associate Professor Alma Fleet, Anthony Semann, Wendy Shepherd and Toby Honig, presenters from the ‘Unpacking Conference’ held in Sydney, for this wonderful professional learning opportunity.

These Seminars were held on April 12th, 16th & 17th

Please read a personal reflection from one participant.  Others are welcome to send in their thoughts and reflections to start an on-line discussion.  Reflective Notes   Click here. Embracing Educational Change Reflection

Anthony Semann – Director Semann & Slattery
Unleashing the potential of play: moving from ages and stages to equity and social justice and Social justice and equity: curriculum and beyond. NZ Social Justice  Click to read presentation notes

Toby Honig – Consultant Semann & Slattery
Out of the mouths of babes: what infants and toddlers tell us, if only we had the eyes to see and the ears to listen

The Auckland Symposium is proudly supported by AUT

About the presenters and their topics:

Janet Robertson – Mia Mia Child and Family Study Centre
The Gardenista: exploration of thinking outside and Stories past, present and future from the outside

Janet Robertson has taught at Mia-Mia Child and Family Study Centre at Macquarie University for 13 years, prior to that she was an Advisor and Director.  Her move forward to teaching was prompted by the thinking from the educational experience in Reggio Emilia.  Since 1992, after her first visit to Reggio Emilia, Janet has spoken and written about the implications arising from the work in Reggio Emilia for Australian education. Janet is co author of Insights, which she co-edited with Catherine Patterson and Alma Fleet.

Associate Professor Alma Fleet
Associate Professor Alma Fleet is the Coordinator of the BTeach (Early Childhood Services) Program at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University. Her interest in learning includes working with people investigating their own practice as a key component of educational change.  Her thinking is influenced by her work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as well as by her study of the educators in Reggio Emilia, Italy.  Her most recent book (Insights), co-edited with Catherine Patterson and Janet Robertson, explores relationships between pedagogical documentation and social justice issues.  She received a Macquarie University Award for Outstanding Community Outreach activity in 2003.

Anthony Semann – Director Semann & Slattery
Unleashing potentials in play: moving from ages and stages to equity and social justice and Social justice and equity: curriculum and beyond

For the past 15 years Anthony has worked as an educator, innovator and advocate with a broad range of government, non-government and private organisations.  Anthony’s achievements have been publicly recognised by his peers and the broader community and he has been awarded the Young Manager of the Year Award and the Inaugural Advocate of the Year Award. Anthony is currently completing a PhD at Macquarie University studying courage and leadership.

Wendy Shepherd
The semiotics of early childhood environments

Wendy is the Director of Mia-Mia Child and Family Study Centre and also works in the academic program of the Institute of Early Childhood in the Management and Young Children and the Arts Units. As an early childhood teacher, Wendy has had experience teaching in early primary, preschool and currently as a long day care director. Wendy is also a member of the Early Childhood Justice Group.

Toby Honig – Consultant Semann & Slattery
Out of the mouth of babes : what infants and toddlers tell us, if only we had the eyes to see and the ears to listen

Toby is an early childhood teacher graduate and he plays a critical role in a range of research projects at Semann & Slattery. With comprehensive knowledge of research methodologies, Toby takes a leading role in organising and participating in a range of research projects applying his skills with both qualitative and quantitative research frameworks. Toby is a dynamic professional who is driven by a passion for transformation.

 A Journey Into the Rights of Children                    Bruna Elena Giacopini 

Bruna Elena lives in Reggio Emilia and works as a pedagogista for the Municipal infant   toddler centres and preschools. She has a PhD in pedagogy and this has given sense and meaning to her own professionalism in the continuous dialogue and exchange with different educational experiences at national and international level. Elena also       coordinates the Remida Creative Recycling Centre.

“Children have rights and children bring culture – on this premise we can                                      build a higher level of citizenship” Malaguzzi

• Universal declaration of human rights was signed in 1948
• The United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child was signed in 1959

The rights of children are about the subjectivity of each child within the group of children. The declaration of rights would be transformed into an assumption of responsibility. Children are the subject of rights from birth. Children are citizens now. To talk of the rights of the child is to talk about the image of the child and the cultural image of the child.

It is about the rights of a person – in the present – not of the future.

Children have rights and there must be a dialogue between the rights of children, of teachers, of parents, of the community. No right lives on its own. How rights exist must be in balance. It is when there is the ‘unbalance’ that we must then strive towards balance –this is reciprocity.

Perfection does not exist, but how can we do better?

The culture expressed by children should be brought from centres and schools to the city. The debates around this are about making meaning.

“Children listen to the rights of their fathers, children listen to the rights of children, Fathers have to listen to rights of their children” (girl aged 5/6)

“Duties are the things you have to do and rights are things you need to have” (boy 5/6)

How does the school as a learning community offer itself as a political and cultural subject and not just an answer to a need? Schools take their identity from a place but they also give identity to that place.  Terms define your identity ‘Schools of childhood’ – ‘Nido’ translates as a ‘nest of childhood’.

Transforming practice into theory and theory into practice.

How do children acquire knowledge?

How do children process and organise knowledge?

How do teachers construct their knowledge together with children? We must observe what the children are proposing to us.

How can we legitimise research about children?

Children’s rights:

1. The Right to Play. The freedom to play. What is normal? Normality doesn’t exist. Inventing a new world, experimenting, creating possible realities without losing sight of the boundaries – being daring. The boundaries are the most interesting places to be in. Play enables us to reinvent our definition of ourselves. Play allows us to be distant from ourselves with ease and to generate a sense of belonging, pleasure and passion.
2. The right to learn to learn. It is important to not give information to children. Children need to know what to do with what they know. They must know how to access information and give meaning to the information. You don’t teach it by saying it.       Meta-cognition is important and is about thinking about thinking.

Building questions, critical thinking, a research attitude with doubts, listening incompleteness, confrontation of ideas as qualifying paradigms.

Knowledge as a means of opening ourselves as a temporary theory and not as an act of conformity.

Enjoying doubt. “What do you mean”. The process is incomplete and this is the beauty.

1. 3.      The right to be recognised as unique, whole, as a protagonist.

We have tried to see the child and children not only as the recipient of care but as producers of relationships – they are constantly seeking the sense of their actions, the meaning of the things around them. They are equipped with enormous potential and they have 100 languages to express their potentiality.

Languages sustain children to be in the world – languages generate and support. We must revisit our image of teaching and learning

1. 4.      The right to a school as ‘agora’ (“place of assembly” in ancient Greek  history)

School is a place to meet, a place of solidarity, dialogues, differences.

Schools are laboratories for a democratic life. They are a community for learning that transmits and builds culture by acting and building the rules that need to be discussed, to argue and to compare ideas.

1. The right to a learning context.

Contexts that offer participation, individual and group learning, intelligent materials, amiable environments, 100 languages, respect of child time, on site professional learning as research. Intelligent materials as a way of activating research – not replicating preconceived ideas.

Nothing without Joy!

Languages represent the world – and languages can re – present ‘yourself’.

There is a need for a theory of experiences – create contexts where experiences are deepened. Generate learning through reflection across an experimental continuum. There is a close relationship between social organisation, physical furnishings, subjects of study and the methods used. There is a link between experience – a link to finding ‘meaning’. Dewey’s theory was viewed as a philosophy of experience.                                 Experience – action – meaning.

1. The right to loans of knowledge – Creating memory through notes. Elena gave an example of a child’s drawing – it was not until the child revealed her thinking when she described what she had drawing, and the drawing came alive. The notes taken by the teacher reveal a different level of thinking.
2. The right to listen – drawing, researching ways to re – present. Children like discussing rules. Make the rules explicit – this gives meaning.
3. The right to construct meanings – constructing rules; The importance is around the purpose of reading and writing. “when you say the ideas they detach from and then come back differently in the middle”. Different responsibilities – equal dignitaries

      The importance of literacy and numeracy must be valued by writing what is important      to children and giving it purpose.

1. 9.      The right to the possibility to organise your own knowledge.

Problematising learning – complicating the everyday

10  The right to a culture of the contemporary. Not to let ‘popular culture’ in means not letting the child in – only parts of the child – but we have said we want the whole child.

How do we welcome those parts of the experience of popular culture?

We must ask ourselves ‘what are the qualities of these toys? Are they fascinating? Which concepts are interesting to children and what parts can be modified. The idea of transformation and identity – identity with your friends.

How are we able to be with our friends? Becoming invisible is fascinating to children and it is possible in the digital world. In Reggio we undertook research around transformation and invisibility. It is interesting when we can multiply parts of ourselves. Children reconstruct and re-imagine these concepts. “Polymarisation” is a way of going round and round that unites two monsters into one really strong monster.

11. The right not to agree – to have different points of view.

      Freedom to express your ideas. Relationships of the word and the clay gives power to      your understanding (e.g. of the bicycle). ‘Is there one bike here that could be used as an    idea for next time?’

Collect – Interpret and then re-launch

Doing – reflecting – interpreting – re-launching

Documentation gives us opportunities to reflect about the learning processes of children and adults.

Keeping an element of doubt alive. Doubt allows a person to communicate something which is different to saying something.

Documentation – the culture of difference.

12. The right to aesthetic dimensions that could help us emerge from conformity

The right to an aesthetic dimension helps us to emerge from conformity which deprives the different languages of energy and expressiveness. The desire to express grace and loveliness, care and attention to the details and a refusal of ‘redundancy’. Spreading of love – being in love

13. The right to take your own time.

      Time to understand and build competencies as a memory of each subject and of the        group.

14. The right to make explicit that the space is time, that the space gives shape to time, to        the right of imagining, to get excited, to dream to learn.

The right to “feel the air” – something that exists but that can’t be seen. The beginning of relationships – fragile but dense.

These notes are a ‘version’ of the presentation given by Elena – but they are only that. As everyone hears, sees, remembers differently, it is a surety that I haven’t captured things quite as they were meant or said. I offer them to you as just that, notes from my encounter with Elena at a presentation in Adelaide.

What a wonderful experience that was. 

Thanks to Bruna Elena Giacopini of Reggio Emilia.

Chris Bayes

Adelaide Conference 9^th – 12^th July

“To feel a sense of belonging, to be part of a larger endeavour, to share meanings – these are the rights of everyone involved in the educational process, whether teachers, children or parents.”
Carla Rinaldi, President, Reggio Children

Wendy, Ivana Soncini, Jan Millikan, Elena Giacopini, Lorraine & Chris

How wonderful it was to be in Adelaide, Australia for the fifth biennial REAIE ‘landscapes’ conference.  This was an opportunity to rekindle and deepen existing relationships with the community of Australian friends.  It also gave us an opportunity to make new friends with the two keynote speakers from Reggio Emilia, Elena Giacopini and Ivana Soncini.  They are both very keen to come to New   Zealand in the future.

The Journey of Rights of Children was expressed by Elena Giacopini, Pedagogista, from Reggio Emilia in her keynote address to the conference.  She introduced the rights of the individual child within the group. She expressed that the world had the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the child, 1959 but we need to be careful and respectful when we mention the rights of the child that we must also talk about the Image of the Child. We must respect the cultural image of the child. We need to invest in the present not talk about the investment in the future child.  Children have the right to be citizens of our cities today.

The culture expressed by children should be brought from the Centres and Schools to the City.  The Exhibition is one way to express meaning but there are other ways for children to be made visible in the cities. Debating ways for children to be seen helps to make meaning.   Elena asked us “How can a school- as a learning community – offer itself as a political and cultural subject and not just an answer to a need?”   The school needs to look at the rights of parents to arrive and leave at different times. What are the rights of the parents?  The school takes it’s identity from the community, it is a “school for childhood”, a “nest for childhood”, a “Nido” or a safe place.  The school takes identity from a place, but it also gives a place an identity.

Elena challenged the conference to “Transform practice into theory – theory into practice.”  Elena asked us “How do children acquire knowledge?” “How do children process and organise knowledge?”  “How do children carry out research?”  “How do teachers construct their knowledge together with children?”  Elena said Reggio Emilia schools like to observe what the children are proposing.  In small groups, not getting caught up into checking on what someone else has proposed but what the children are saying.

Elena went on to expand on the many rights of the child in the school or centre, she used examples with photos and children’s drawings.

The Right of play

The Right to learn to learn

The Right to be recognised as a pedagogista.

The Right of the school as “Agora” (Greek – to be an open place)

The Right to a learning context.  To use ‘intelligent materials’ children deserve more, not to repeat preconceived ideas.

The Right of loans of knowledge.

The Right to listen

The Right to construct meaning.

The Right to organise knowledge.

The Right to a culture of the contemporary.

The Right to not agree, to have a different point of view.

The Right to aesthetic dimensions that could help us emerge from conformity.

The Right to make explicit that space in time which gives shape to imaging, to get excited, to dream and to learn.

The Right to feel the air as something that exists, that can’t be seen.

Nothing without joy!

Wendy Larmer, Margo Hobba REAIE Chairperson, Lorraine Manuela

There were many highlights from a wonderful conference.  Some of these included hearing other guest speakers and Australian presenters talking on the rights of aboriginal children and immigrant children.  There were visits to inspiring schools and early childhood centres.  We were honoured to be invited to the official opening of the Hundred Languages of Children Exhibition.  We had a warm welcome to Adelaide.