This week, Red River College will have an Italian flair as two well-known childcare specialists, Filippini Tizianna and Laura Rubizzi, participate in a 6-day conference aimed at teaching the value of the Reggio Emilia philosophy and the importance of pedagogical research in early-childhood development.

Reggio Emilia is a worldwide program that is based on the principles that children are capable and competent and they should have some control over the direction of their learning. Developed in Italy following the Second World War, Reggio Emilia is quickly making headway in many Canadian public schools and daycares as it transforms cultural assumptions about children and their intellectual abilities.

“What we want to achieve this week is to see how other childcare centres in Winnipeg are benefitting from this type of early childhood education, and to also learn from the experts as to how we can further improve our implementation of the program and how to properly track children’s development through their early years,” said Sue Narozniak, Coordinator, Early Childhood Education, Red River College, and Chair of the Manitoba Reggio Inspired Coalition of Educators (MB RICE).

Over the next six-days, Tizianna and Rubizzi will join conference participants as they visit childcare centres across the City where they will evaluate programming and conduct roundtable discussions about Reggio Emlia and the importance of tracking children’s progress through the early years.

“Reggio-inspired teaching means listening, documenting, and sharing those results with the children, parents, and other early childhood educators. It’s about giving some control and allowing children to choose their path as they learn and develop. Our goal is to reinforce how important collecting that information is and I am really excited that Filippini and Laura were able to make the trip.” said Narozniak.

The conference will take place from April 20 – 25 and include a variety of tours and a keynote session that will take place on April 23 from 3pm to 6pm at Red River College’s Notre Dame Campus in the Voyageur Cafeteria.