Working the Reggio Way

“A teacher’s goal is not so much to ‘facilitate’ learning in the sense of ‘making it smooth or easy’ but rather to ‘stimulate’ it by making problems more complex, engaging, and difficult.” – Loris Malaguzzi

Working the Reggio Way: A Beginner’s Guide for American Teachers
Julianne Wurm


Working the Reggio Way: A Beginner’s Guide for American Teachers was written in the context of applying the Italian “Reggio Approach” once featured in a 1991 Newsweek issue as offering “the best early childhood programs in the world,” into the American setting. The book is supposed to fill the cultural gap by providing practical suggestions for the American early childhood educator. It is not so much to replicate the schools themselves, “as cultural restraints make that impossible,” but to use the approach relevant to the culture of the United States. By asking many questions or engaging readers in exercises through out the chapters, the reader is lead to becoming a “reflective practitioner.” Progressing through the book should allow the reader to see the difference between values and actual practice. Reflective practice, as a basic point of origin for working with children in Reggio ways, is “looking at the ways you are working and asking questions of yourself and your colleagues.” The book presents the challenge for the practitioner to take responsibility for his/her professional development, “which requires constant reflection, collaboration, and questioning.”

The book is organized by starting with the reader’s reflection of his/her “own values about children, education, and community.” These values are to be the basis of succeeding actions, through the lens of which the reader “will look at the physical environment and space; the organization of time; the Reggio approach to curriculum through progettazione, or projects; and then the documentation, questioning that give life to the curriculum and the program.” Because it is a guide book, the book proceeds on a step by step learning course. The author encourages readers to learn along and actively participate by answering questions and writing these answers in a notebook or discussing it with a study group of colleagues.

A great emphasis of the approach is its interconnectedness. The one quality, the author says, proves difficult for teachers, because the approach presents a “big, complex picture” rather than small, compartmentalized, and individual pieces.

Chapter 1 begins by asking questions fundamental questions which serve as foundations in creating a vision for the school:

What is a child?
What is childhood?
How do we learn?
How do children learn?
What is the meaning of to educate?
What is the relationship between teaching and learning?
What is the relationship between theory and practice?
What is the relationship between school and research? And what is the relationship between school for young children and research?
What is the relationship between school and education?

The premise is the view that educators have of children, or their answers to the questions stated above affect actions including even the arrangement of the environment. In Reggio Emilia, children are not viewed as fragile but rather as “strong, powerful, and rich in potential, driven by the power of wanting to grow, and nurtured by adults who take this drive towards growth seriously.” Three features of the Reggio programs are manifestations of this view of the child as competent: a “wait time” which requires teachers to give the children time to understand concepts on their own; access to the bathroom without adult supervision; and sinks at children’s level.

“The curriculum in Reggio grows from teachers, children, and their families in those schools from their cultural context.” This approach may seem very radical for an educational system, present not only in the US that traditionally espouses a clear set of objectives and materials, or to “align their work with standards or readiness guidelines.” Alignment however should come with an established vision resulting from an examination of views and moving all elements, considering what is already in existence, towards that stated vision: aligning values and practice.


Space, “the physical, unchanging features of the place in which one lives and works with children” and environment, “the way physical space is dressed up, lived in, defined, and redefine over time” is discussed in Chapter 2. The author further gives the distinction for these two terms by suggesting conceiving “the space as forming the scaffold or framework upon which we create the environment.”

Sample Questions to Ask on the Environment:
(What do the answers communicate about your view of the child?)

o Why are the plant leaves dusty or limp from lack of watering?
o Why are there fake plants instead of real ones?
o Why are many of the toys stored out of reach of children?
o Could the storage areas be covered to create a more pleasing aesthetic sense?
o Are there boxes of old materials stored on tip of cabinets?
o Why do the children eat on paper plates?
o Why is the food made the previous day and reheated?
o How are materials presented?
o Is the restroom accessible to children at all times?
o Is the documentation at an adult’s eye level or a child’s?
o Where do the children eat?
o Where do they rest?
o What do they rest on?
o Is the outdoor space cement with a play structure?
o Is there adequate natural light?
o Does the air move freely throughout the school?
o Are there mirrors for children to see themselves?
o What does the child see when he looks up?
o Are the walls stimulating?
o Are the walls orderly?
o Are the walls clean?
o What are the clothes like in the dress-up area – adult hand-me-downs or child-sized fantasy clothes?
o Are the kitchen implements in the house-play area real or from the kitchen kit for children?
o Does the environment hold the child’s attention?
o Does the child want to stare at the light sparkles made from a hanging prism?
o Are musical instruments available?
o Are there places for the children to interact with one another both inside and outside?
o Are there safe “nooks” for two or three children to go to on their own?
o How are the blocks in the construction area stored?
o Is there a construction area?
o Is there a House-play area?
o Is there a dress-up area