Loris Malaguzzi and the Reggio Emilia Experience

Kathy Hall, Mary Horgan, Anna Ridgway, Rosaleen Murphy, Maura Cunneen, Denice Cunningham, Richard Bailey

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781472518750
• eBook ISBN:
  9781472518767
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The Municipal preschools of Reggio Emilia, in Northern Italy, are renowned world-wide for the excellence of their provision. This approach provides a unique collaboration between children, parents, teachers and the wider community.

Loris Malaguzzi and the Reggio Emilia Experience brings together the history and context of the Reggio Emilia experience, and explores the principles espoused by Loris Malaguzzi and the Early Years' Educators of the Reggio Emilia Municipality. It critically evaluates the emergent curriculum and quality provision and offers new insights into the powerful and dominant discourses of the Reggio movement.

It will provide students and educators with a comprehensive overview of the phenomenon that is Reggio Emilia.

Part 1

Reggio Emilia and Loris Malaguzzi: Socio-cultural Context and Intellectual Biography

It was based on the initiative of women who had developed their awareness through all the terrible experiences of war and through the struggle for liberation, through the resistance . . .

(Barsotti, 2004, p. 11)

Chapter 1

The History and Context of the Development of the Reggio Emilia Experience

Introduction

Reggio Emilia is a town in the northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna. This region of Italy is wealthy and has become a model of economic development for the rest of the country due to the presence of 45,000 small-and medium-sized enterprises which are involved in manufacturing, food production and processing. Many towns are known for their own specialities, such as Parma for ham, Modena for Ferrari cars and machinery, and Reggio Emilia for cheese (Richards, 1995). However, Reggio Emilia has also become noted for its development of an early-years system of education known as the ‘Reggio Experience’ which has been epitomized by the following elements:

Young children are encouraged to explore their environment and express themselves through all of their available ‘expressive, communicative, and cognitive languages’. . . . From the beginning, there has been an explicit recognition of the relationship or partnership among parents, educators, and children. . . . The approach provides . . . new ways to think about the nature of the child as learner, the role of the teacher, school organization and management, the design and use of physical environments, and curriculum planning that guides experiences of joint, open-ended discovery and constructive posing and solving of problems.

(Edwards et al., 1998, pp. 7–8)

The Reggio Experience contains the elements now seen as crucial to the development of child-centered educational facilities suited to young children. These include parental involvement, close collaboration between home and school, viewing education as part of the wider social context, seeing young children as competent learners, providing an environment that interests and challenges them and allowing children to experience and explore their surroundings. Children are considered as having rights, not as adults in the making, but as people with their own needs and interests.

In relation to understanding how the Reggio Experience came into being, it is necessary to understand the political philosophies which underpinned Italian society prior to the Second World War, for, if any system of education can be said to have grown out of the political landscape of a country, it is that of Reggio Emilia. In the case of Reggio Romagna and its population, the two opposing ideologies of Socialism/Communism (which was generally approved) and Fascism (which was generally abhorred) were fundamentally important to what was eventually to become known as the Reggio Experience.

Socialism/Communism

‘Socialism’, as generally understood, is a much broader concept than ‘communism’, . . . Socialists believe that capitalistic production is a system which tends to produce large divisions between rich and poor, and which can develop only in an erratic way . . . Like Soviet Communism, socialism presumes the idea of economic management – it is in opposition to the unfettered rule of markets.

(Giddens, 1993, pp. 666–7)

The upheavals in Europe following the French Revolution of 1789 resulted in the evolution of Socialism as a political theory in the nineteenth century. The Industrial Revolution also caused many to question the injustices and inequalities which arose as a consequence of the laissez-faire market economy. In the first half of the nineteenth century, Socialist theory emerged mainly from France and Britain, with its proponents including

Henri de Saint-Simon, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Charles Fourier, Louis Blanc and Robert Owen. These theorists advocated the egalitarian redistribution of wealth and the abolition of private property accompanied by the establishment of small, collectivist communities.

In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels produced the Manifesto of the Communist Party in which they outlined their theories of social reform. This ‘scientific Socialism’ advocated the abolition of bourgeois property and considered class struggle to be the basis upon which all societies had been formed. They believed that only a revolution by the proletariat, i.e. the working class, to secure the means of production and wealth (capital), would transform society. This Marxist theory, as it became known, considered Socialism to be a transitional stage between capitalism and Commu‎nism. A Communist society would be characterized by the end of both the class system and class warfare, the collective holding of the means of production and the redistribution of wealth, ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’ (Marx, 1875). Thus, according to this theory, people would no longer feel alienated from society as they both contributed to, and benefited from, being part of the co-operative means of production and might then be in control of their own destiny (Giddens, 1993).

According to Williams (1976) religion influenced the descriptive use of the words ‘Socialist’ or ‘Communist’ in that the latter was perceived to be more atheistic than the former. Furthermore, Engels (1888 [2002]) noted that Socialism was considered more ‘respectable’ than Communism, due to the latter’s association with working-class movements. In the last 30 years of the nineteenth century, social democratic parties were founded in many parts of Europe, including Italy.

In the Italian context, the Italian Socialist Party (Partito Socialista Italiano, PSI) was founded in Genoa in 1892 and adhered to the Socialist principles as outlined above. As a consequence, the party suffered greatly at the hands of successive governments in its early years. However, electoral gains were made in the early years of the twentieth century. At that time, the PSI contained two divisive factions, the Reformists and the Maximalists, led by Filippo Turati and Benito Mussolini respectively. Turati was supported mostly by the unions and the parliamentary group, while Mussolini looked to the international group of Socialist parties of the Left. This division caused many difficulties for the PSI.

The First World War (1914–18) caused even greater problems for the PSI, as its refusal to support Italy’s entry into the war caused Mussolini and his faction to leave the party. Many ex-PSI members eventually joined Mussolini and his newly formed Fascist party. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the PSI supported the Communist government’s call for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie.

During the years 1919–20 there were many violent clashes between the Fascists and Socialists and, in 1921, the radicals in the PSI split to form the Communist Party of Italy. Following the assassination of the Socialist, Giacomo Matteotti, in 1924 and the establishment of a Fascist dictatorship, the PSI, along with all other political parties, was banned and its leadership remained in exile during the Fascist era.

The Communist Party of Italy (Partito Communista d’Italia) was founded in 1921 having resulted from a split with the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). It supported the principles of Communism outlined by Marx and Engels and, as a result, was banned by the Fascist government and was subject to violent assault from elements of that party. In 1926, the Communist Party of Italy was disbanded and subsequently re-formed under the name of the Communist Party of Italy, Section of the Communist International, a title it retained until 1943 when Stalin dissolved the Communist International. However, Partito Communista d’Italiano (PCd’I) was the name by which the party was generally known. In these early years, the Communist Party had three main factions, the Left, the Right and the Centre, whose leaders were Amadeo Bordiga, Angelo Tasca and Antonio Gramsci respectively. The ideological differences among these groups caused some difficulties for the party; however, structures were put in place for its national organization. These structures included provincial federations, union groups and an organization (Ufficio Primo) for engagement with armed Fascist groups. During the Fascist era, the Communist Party was banned, and the Communist Left went into exile (Piccone, 1983).

In the north of Italy, including the Emilia Romagna region, where parties of the Left would have been the popular political parties of choice, then (as now) both Socialists and Communists suffered greatly during the time of the Fascist regime. The ideologies they supported were in direct opposition to those of the government and, as a consequence, members of these parties became targets of Fascist attack. During the Second World War, many of the partisans who fought were members of the PSI or the PCd’I. The experiences of living under the Fascist regime and the events of the Second World War changed the views of many as regards the principles under which people ought to live, work, raise and educate children. In the case of Reggio Emilia, this history resulted in parents, in particular, searching for a radically different way to educate their young children.

Fascism

In post-First World War Italy, Fascism took root at a time of great economic hardship with mass unemployment and high inflation. Fears of a Bolshevik revolution, strikes and violence in the years 1919–20 brought both Gabriele d’Annunzio (1863–1938) and Benito Mussolini ((1883–1945) to prominence. d’Annunzio, a writer and fervent nationalist, created ‘myths’ and elaborate ceremonies which brought to mind the glories of Ancient Rome and its legionaries. It was he who introduced the ‘Roman salute’ and the black shirts which were to become so identified with Mussolini’s Fascists. Many considered d’Annunzio as being likely to play a leading role in the future of Italian politics, but this was not to be. Instead, emerging from the radical Right of Italian politics was one Benito Mussolini, who had been named after the Mexican revolutionary Benito Juarez, whom his parents admired. He was a former Socialist and one-time editor of the Milanese Socialist paper Avanti. He advocated Italy’s entry into the First World War on the side of the Allies, which infuriated the Socialists. In 1915, he founded his own paper, Il Popolo d’Italia and, when Italy joined the war against Germany, he enlisted and reached the rank of Corporal before being discharged in 1917 due to shrapnel wounds. By 1919, Mussolini was disenchanted with post-war Italy and its economic and social difficulties, and on 23 March 1919 in Milan, along with others, founded the Fasci di Combatti (Groups for the War Veteran) whose members became known as Fascists (Griffiths, 2005).

Fascism was (and is) an extreme right-wing ideology that glorifies a nation or race above all other loyalties. It is hostile to Marxism, liberalism and conservatism, and rejects, as threats to national or racial unity, the principles of workers’ internationalism or class struggle. Fascism rejects representative government, yet may use such channels to gain power (Lyons and Berlet, 1996). The program of the Italian Fascists in these early years was a combination of doctrines of both the Left and Right and included proposals such as seizure of church property, abolition of the monarchy, abolition of the Senate, 85 percent tax on war profits, nationalization of the munitions industry, worker participation in management, universal suffrage, an eight-hour working day and a minimum wage. The Fascist organization was paramilitary in nature, and was not averse to using violence against its opponents. Also, Fascism opposed the parliamentary system of alliances, yet, in 1921, Mussolini negotiated an electoral alliance with the then Prime Minister, Giovanni Giolitti, and won 33 seats in the May election of that year. By 1922, a quarter of a million people were members of the party, and in August, the Left called for a general strike, and issued an ultimatum to the government calling on them to prove that within 48 hours they could assert authority or else the Fascists would assume power. The strike collapsed, but civil unrest continued with Communist power bases being destroyed by the Fascists.

Following on from this event, the Fascists came to believe that normal parliamentary procedures could never ensure implementation of their program. As a consequence, the ‘March on Rome’ was organized on 24 October 1922. The Fascists occupied public buildings throughout Italy and approached Rome from three different directions. The King, Victor Emmanuel III, offered Musssolini the Prime Ministership on 28 October and Fascist troops entered Rome two days later. By these means, Benito Mussolini and his Fascist Party came to power in Italy.

Within a very short time of assuming power, the Fascists discarded some elements of their earlier program. No longer did they seek to seize church property, tax war profits, introduce a minimum wage or universal suffrage (Italian women did not achieve the right to vote on an equal basis with men until 1945) (Giddens, 1993). Fascist violence and intimidation against opponents, particularly parties of the Left, continued unabated, with the complicity of both the police and the army.

In the election of April 1924, the Fascist Party won 374 of the 535 seats in the Italian Parliament, but in June, Fascists killed the Socialist, Giacomo Matteotti. This caused outrage to which Mussolini responded by making a speech in Parliament accepting responsibility and suggesting that the only way by which Italy could overcome such civil unrest was the institution of a dictatorship. On 25 December, a law was passed giving Mussolini complete control of the government of Italy. Thus, the dictatorial power of ‘Il Duce’ became absolute (Griffiths, 2005).

Within a very short time of having assumed control of Italy, Mussolini introduced the following measures: political parties and trade unions were banned, a free press was abolished, increased powers of arrest and detention were introduced, the death penalty was extended to apply to actions taken against the Fascist authorities, special courts were set up to deal with political crimes, and a secret police force was created. On the economic front, Mussolini advocated the doctrine of the Corporate State. According to this policy, a group composed of workers, employers and state representatives would oversee the nation’s economic activities for the betterment of all. However, this policy resulted in high taxes, direct control of major industries, protectionism and ultimate economic stagnation.

Mussolini’s attitude towards the Catholic Church changed radically with the signing of the Lateran Treaty of 1929, wherein the Vatican became a sovereign and independent State. The Church still retained a level of support among the population, particularly among the traditionalists of the south of Italy, an area in which Fascism made very little progress. Also, the Church’s control of education remained a very important aspect of Italian life (Griffiths, 2005).

On the foreign policy front, throughout the 1920s, Mussolini obtained Fiume from Yugoslavia, declared a protectorate over Albania, invaded Corfu and Ethiopia, and crushed a revolt in Libya. In 1936, Mussolini allied himself with Germany’s Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) in the Rome–Berlin Axis. On the 22 May 1939, Mussolini signed the Pact of Steel with Germany and became its ally during the Second World War which began on 1 September that same year. However, by 1943, Italy was losing the war and, in July, Mussolini was deposed by his own Fascist Grand Council and the very King who had appointed him, Victor Emmanuel III. Allied troops landed in Sicily, and Italy surrendered on 8 September. Mussolini was arrested but was rescued by the Germans, and escaped to German-held northern Italy. He was captured by partisans near Lake Como and executed in April 1945.

The legacy left by Fascism on Italian society was extremely divisive. Its treatment of parties of the Left resulted in the alienation of vast sections of the population in areas of the country in which there were strong Socialist/Communist sentiments. This was particularly so in the area of Reggio Emilia and its hinterland. Rectifying past injustices and creating a better future for their children became the founding principles upon which the system of early-years education was developed. Thus the Reggio Experience came into being.

The Reggio Emilia preschools and the Reggio Experience grew out of a particular social milieu and philosophy at a time in Italy when great change was occurring. They are unusual in that they did not emanate from educators, but from parents who sought a secular system of education for their young children. In the history of Italian education it is quite unique.

Educational and Historical Developments in Italy

It is believed that Indo-European peoples began to migrate to Italy in about 2000 BC. The Etruscans dominated this area until overthrown by the Romans in the third century BC. The Romans conquered all of Italy south of Cisalpine Gaul and reta...

Table of contents

• Cover-Page
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Contents
• Series Editor’s Preface
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Dedication
• Introduction
• Part 1: Reggio Emilia and Loris Malaguzzi: Socio-cultural Context and Intellectual Biography
• Part 2: Critical Exposition of the Reggio Emilia Experience
• Part 3: The Relevance of Reggio Emilia
• Conclusion
• Appendix: ‘No Way - The Hundred is There’
• References
• Index
• Copyright