Later this month a team of 13 SOE faculty, staff, and students associated with the Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) will travel to Italy to participate in a Reggio Emilia Study Group. The team from UM-Dearborn is led by Seong Hong, Rosalyn Saltz Collegiate Professor of Education, and includes LaShorage Shaffer (SOE assistant professor), Debbie Jones (ECEC Site Director), Lauren Stine (SOE senior, majoring in early childhood education), and 9 ECEC teachers: Daniel Camardese, Tammy Daigneau, Caryn Finkelstein, Sara Kurtjian, Kelly Lenihan, Cyndi McAuliffe, Daniel Muehlenbein, Catie Stone, and Amy Szymazck.
The week-long Reggio Emilia Study Group experience includes presentations by Reggio pedagogistas, atelierstas, and teachers; site visits to the internationally acclaimed Municipal Infant-Toddler Center and Preschool classrooms in Reggio Emilia; a visit to the Loris Malaguzzi Documentation and Research Center, and extensive interaction with other students and faculty members visiting from the U.S.
The participants from UM-Dearborn will be among the 143 participants from the United States. Participants include teams from 12 universities, with teams ranging in size from 2 to 44. Other universities sending teams to this week-long institute include Columbia College, Portland State University, the University of Colorado-Denver, University of North Carolina at Charlotte; University of Washington, and West Virginia University.
The ECEC has based its educational program on the Reggio Emilia philosophy for more than 15 years. The Reggio Emilia teaching philosophy is also an integral part of the required courses in the SOE’s early childhood education curriculum for prospective teachers. Thus, the Reggio philosophy is central to all our endeavors in the area of early childhood education at UM-Dearborn, and this trip provides an opportunity for the participants both to visit the birthplace of these foundational and influential ideas and to network with other professionals similarly engaged in Reggio-inspired pedagogy.
The Reggio Children Organization was founded in 1994 to promote and defend children’s rights and to organize pedagogical and cultural exchanges between Reggio Emilia’s municipal early childhood centers and academics from around the world. Many U. S. universities have participated in study groups and exchanges. The schools of Reggio Emilia are widely recognized as providing a seamless model of excellence in early childhood education with respect to curriculum, environment, parent involvement, and staff development.
Please join me in wishing the group a hearty Bon Voyage!
For more on the trip after the group returned from Italy, see the story in the UM-Dearborn Reporter.
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