Kerri Iwaskow: My first experiences with the science of thought behind Reggio Emilia

In 2010 i was the very lucky recipient of the R E Provocations scholarship In Depth Study Week,
The Experience of the Infant Toddler Centres and its Context.

I spent a week in Reggio attending the Centro Internazionale Loris Malaguzzi, and since I'm in the process of packing up for yet another move, i thought id share my notes with you.

Half of them might not make sense to anyone, but part of the scholarship was to theorise and construct a few questions to research while i was there, so that's what i did, and it totally changed my practise.

It was not so much what i saw in the centres and the practise of the teachers but more the way the teachers thought.

This is my list i developed after attending the R E Provocations conference in NZ back in 2010 before i went to Reggio Emilia.

Should we let experience just happen and acknowledge that the uncertainty and experimental is in fact the start of a focus?

Can we get to abstract thinking without abstract actions that involve really breaking down and knowing our art mediums?

Are we too quick to Jump in and take control?

Does the change that happens as we play with creations slip away unnoticed? So are we missing the hypothesis?

Process verses the technique, could the process be the product?

I think those where the questions that won the judging panel over.

Well that's my blog for today, because each question is a blog entry in itself.

I will try and find some more photos of Reggio Emilia though, who doesn't love photos :)