By Sarah DeLuca

Niente Senza Gioia (Nothing Without Joy!)
- Loris Malaguzzi

This is one of my favorite quotes from Loris Malaguzzi, principal founder of the Reggio Emilia schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The quote resonates with me at the progressive school where I am lucky enough to have been teaching and learning for the past 14 years. The school is Hanahauʻoli School, which translates to “joyous work.” “Aha!” I cried when I found this quote - it’s meant to be! 

For the next school year, I will be taking a sabbatical from teaching in a K/1 multiage classroom at Hanahauʻoli. I will be relocating to Italy with my husband and children to study the Reggio Emilia approach in depth. I will also be returning to a country I have lived in, both as a child and an adult, I adore, and am fascinated by, and to immerse my children in the language and culture of their heritage. Over the course of the school year, I look forward to sharing my journey and what I’m learning from my sabbatical with readers of the Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy blog. In this inaugural entry, I will begin by giving a bit more background information on how my story with Reggio began and the plans for my sabbatical. 

Connecting the Reggio Emilia Approach with Hanahauʻoli School

Loris Malaguzzi, the principal founder of the Reggio Emilia schools, worked collaboratively with a group of community members, namely courageous mothers, to create an approach to education that arose as complete opposition to the fascist systems of post-World War II. He was strongly influenced by John Dewey (whose philosophy of education has also deeply influenced Hanahauʻoli School’s progressive lens), Jean Piaget, and Friedrich Froebel. Malaguzzi set out to create an approach to teaching and learning that was philosophically different from the fascist ideology and trauma from which Italy was emerging. What resulted was a practice that whole-heartedly values the beauty of childhood and celebrates children and the ways they make meaning of the world around them. This philosophical underpinning, of always going back to what’s best for children and valuing childhood for the beauty and essence of what it is, speaks to me and who I am as an educator at my core. This guiding principle is also incredibly aligned with our beliefs about children at Hanahauʻoli. 

In the Reggio Emilia experience, children are allowed the time and space to construct their own knowledge through direct experiences, observations, and relationships with their world. This constructivist approach aligns so well with what we do at Hanahauʻoli and our focus on learning by doing. Another parallel is the dynamic relationship between families and their child’s educational experiences. In Reggio Emilia, parents are engaged with educational policies and politics. The parents are in constant dialogue with the school and are invited to be a part of the educational process, similar to Hanahauʻoli School’s belief that “the family is the first, and foremost educator of children,'' and that a strong home-school partnership is an essential component of our progressive philosophy and pedagogy. The idea of learning as a social construct is another core and underlying tenet in both the Reggio Emilia and Hanahauʻoli credence that children learn through relationships with each other and their environment. 

My Connection with Italy

An important part of my life has been my relationship with the country of Italy and its people, language, and culture. When I was seven years old, my family lived in Florence, Italy. For my undergraduate degree I studied International Relations and spent time living and studying in Siena, Italy. My husband’s family has strong familial and cultural ties to Sicily, which have blossomed for us and our children over the past 17 years with several visits to relatives in Messina. When David and I visited Italy last, our daughter Sicilia was two and I was pregnant with our son, Enzo. David and I felt we had a strong understanding of Italian culture, but to experience it as parents and through the eyes of our daughter was an incredible cultural shift for us. What repeatedly struck David and me was the value that Italians as a society place on childhood. We realized the way Italians view children was unique in the sense of their joy and appreciation for childhood. The Reggio Emilia approach and general attitudes towards children and life are deeply intertwined and interconnected, much like the process of learning. Living in Italy while studying the Reggio Emilia approach and visiting the city of Reggio Emilia in person will deepen my understanding of this approach from a cultural context. 

The Plans for my Sabbatical 

In the 2021-22 school year I applied for and was awarded a sabbatical from Hanahauʻoli School. The process included writing up detailed rationale as to why the sabbatical was critical for me as a learner, teacher, and teacher scholar and how it would make important contributions to our school. It also included identifying a focus of my inquiry and how I would document my growth. Of course the plans might change depending on the unfolding of the year and unexpected opportunities, but as of right now the priorities identified in the following paragraph outlines the focus of my year of study. 

My main areas of focus while diving into the Reggio approach will be to study these three core inquiries: (1) Teacher as researcher of children's thinking, (2) Documentation as part of "making children's thinking visible” and (3) The environment as educator, with a focus on a sense of place. As I explore the many and diverse aspects of the Reggio approach, these three areas of focus will center my learning and help guide my research. I have chosen these three specific inquiries because they not only relate to one another, but I believe that they will also ultimately benefit the work we do at Hanahauʻoli. Lessons learned in these three areas will help us develop a more intentional approach to cultivating children’s thinking and provide deeper reflection about how we use the spaces we create for learning. 

In order to research these main areas of focus, I will be conducting literature reviews, attending virtual conferences through NAREA (North American Reggio Emilia Alliance), completing graduate coursework and obtaining a Certificate of ECE Pedagogy from UC Denver, conducting digital meetings, in-person visits, and mentorship, both in the U.S. and Italy. I will also be visiting Reggio and other progressive schools in Italy, as well as virtually. What I am most looking forward to: visiting the schools in Reggio through two separate week-long study groups. 

In his book Experience and Education, Dewey (1938) states: “The most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning” (p. 29). I see myself as a lifelong learner, just as we view the children. Ever since I began exploring the possibilities of learning within the Reggio Emilia approach to education, I find myself passionately curious, full of emotion, inspired, and left with many questions to explore. I look forward to living this experience and sharing my discoveries along the way!

Works Cited: 

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York Macmillan Company.

Edwards, Carolyn P. (1993) The Hundred Languages of Children: the Reggio Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education. Norwood, N.J. :Ablex Pub. Corp.

Hanahauʻoli School. (2022, July). Mission and Beliefs. Retrieved from: https://www.hanahauoli.org/mission

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sarah DeLuca is a K-1 early childhood educator at Hanahauʻoli School, where she has been teaching and learning with and from her students, colleagues, and families since 2009. Sarah was born and raised in the Kaimuki area and is an alumnus of Iolani School. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Oregon in International Studies and her (MEdT) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She has lived and studied in Italy and enjoys traveling to spend time with extended family there. She finds great joy in working alongside young children, particularly exploring our beautiful island home, creating art, and getting lost in the wonderful world of books.