The Reggio Approach in Motion: Documenting Experiences, Reflecting on Practice, and Disseminating the Ideas

This article offers a cultural analysis of the materialization into cultural texts of a variety of educational experiences, political visions, and pedagogical approaches in order to understand the symbolic construction of the Reggio Emilia approach, highlighting its singularity and the motives of its dissemination. The analysis considers selected texts that refer to specific methods of documenting children’s activities to highlight the symbolic strategies that select, organize, and materialize a constellation of local experiences into a unified educational perspective. Through the innovative analysis of text composition, new dimensions of professionalism have emerged, challenging conventional approaches and promotinga valid alternative to the standardization of early childhood education. The dissemination of the Reggio approach through texts opens up new opportunities for early years practitioners to critically consider participation with families and calls on policymakers to reform the sector. The potential is created for cultural dialogue between families and professionals with different models of children’s growth, thereby enriching the “funds of knowledge” at communities’ disposal to promote children’s approaches to language and symbolism.

Art pedagogy in preschool education: opportunities and challenges

The article considers issues related to the development of a creatively active personality of a preschool child through art pedagogy. The essence, goals and objectives of art pedagogy in the context of preschool education are determined. Possible problems of art pedagogy technologies’ implementation are highlighted: at the organization level of the subject-spatial environment, the readiness of children, teachers and parents. The ways and means of resolving the identified problems are also presented: systematic work with teachers and parents included in joint parent-child projects and ways of transforming the developing subject-spatial environment in preschool educational organizations is proposed. The Reggio approach is presented as one of the most successful forms of implementation: the international experience of applying this approach in preschool organizations is described. Also presented is the practice of Reggio approach implementing on line with art pedagogy in working with teachers and parents, carried out at the Southern Federal University in the form of a short-term project.