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

Abstract

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 promoting
a 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.