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What Is the Reggio Emilia Approach? A Living Philosophy of Childhood
by Rebecca Fox
An overview of the Reggio Emilia Approach®, exploring its core values—children as protagonists, the hundred languages, democratic participation, and the environment as third teacher—in a richly relational, aesthetic pedagogy.
Keywords: Reggio Emilia Approach, Loris Malaguzzi, hundred languages, environment as third teacher, documentation, pedagogical philosophy, democratic education, child as protagonist, collaborative learning
The Reggio Emilia Approach: A Living Philosophy of Learning
What Is the Reggio Emilia Approach? A Living Philosophy of Childhood
In a small city in northern Italy, something extraordinary has been unfolding for decades. It is not a method or a curriculum. It is not standardized or exported in kits. Instead, it is a living, evolving philosophy of education rooted in a deep respect for childhood, community, and the right to participate in shaping one's world. This is the Reggio Emilia Approach®.
Developed in the municipal infant-toddler centers and preschools of Reggio Emilia, Italy, this educational project is known worldwide for its innovation, beauty, and depth. But to truly understand what makes it so powerful, we must look beyond the aesthetics of the classrooms and into the values that animate them.
The Reggio Emilia Approach is not a curriculum or a packaged program. It’s a living, breathing philosophy of early childhood education that began in a small Italian town and has become one of the most respected and talked-about models in the world. What sets Reggio apart is its deep respect for children as capable, curious protagonists in their own learning, and its firm belief that learning is fundamentally relational.
Lets walk through the history, core principles, and daily life of Reggio-inspired practice, drawing from foundational texts and the wisdom of educators like Loris Malaguzzi and Lella Gandini.
A Brief History Rooted in Community
Reggio Emilia, a town in northern Italy, was the birthplace of this approach in the wake of World War II. In 1945, a group of parents—motivated by a desire to raise children who would not be complicit in future fascism—literally built a preschool with their own hands and proceeds from selling abandoned war materials. It was a grassroots, community-powered response to a world in need of rebuilding, not just materially but morally and socially.
Enter Loris Malaguzzi, a young educator and psychologist who saw in these parents a revolution in the making. He joined them, and over time, helped craft a municipal early childhood system grounded in the rights of children and families. What started as one school became a city-wide network of infant-toddler centers and preschools funded by the local government. This wasn’t just a nice idea—it was structural, political, and relational from the start (New, 2000).
Foundational Principles
What emerged in Reggio Emilia is not a fixed set of techniques but a set of evolving values. These values are expressed in a few interrelated principles:
Reggio educators see children as strong, capable, and full of potential. They are not empty vessels or mini-adults, but active constructors of knowledge. This idea shapes everything else. The goal is not to mold children into something but to support who they already are becoming (Gandini, 2008).
Image of the Child: Children as Protagonists
In Reggio Emilia, children are not viewed as empty vessels to be filled, nor passive recipients of adult knowledge. They are protagonists in their own learning journeys—curious, capable, and rich with ideas. This image of the child reshapes everything: how we design environments, how we structure time, and how we relate to one another.
Children are seen as citizens with rights, not just needs. They bring with them a desire to connect, to question, to make meaning. Learning unfolds in relationship—with other children, with adults, with materials, and with the environment.
Relationships: The Heart of It All
If you had to reduce the Reggio Approach to one core word, it might be relationship. The pedagogy is relational not only in how it treats children, but in how it positions teachers, families, and the community.
Learning doesn’t happen in isolation. Reggio views education as a system of relationships—between children, teachers, families, and the wider community. The concept of the "learning group" means that children construct knowledge together, in conversation, play, and collaboration (Gandini, 2008).
Teachers don’t act as bosses or behavior managers. They co-construct learning with children, listening closely, asking thoughtful questions, and helping make connections. They observe not to correct, but to understand. According to Gandini’s recommendations, a Reggio teacher "facilitates the learning process" and is a partner, guide, and researcher alongside the child (Gandini, n.d.).
Parents are seen as essential partners in education. Schools offer transparency through documentation and frequent communication, not just so parents can see what's happening, but so they can actively participate in the ongoing inquiry. The community, too, plays a role: schools in Reggio Emilia reflect a civic commitment to young children, publicly funded and publicly celebrated.
The Environment as Third Teacher
Walk into a Reggio-inspired space and you will notice the difference immediately. There is light, beauty, order, and intentionality. Materials are presented with care. The room invites exploration.
Reggio classrooms are designed with intention. Spaces are open, beautiful, organized, and filled with natural light, plants, and materials that invite exploration. The idea is that the environment should communicate respect and possibility. It should provoke wonder.
But the environment is not just attractive—it is pedagogical. It speaks. It reflects values. Malaguzzi once said the environment should function like an aquarium, “reflecting the ideas, ethics, attitudes, and culture of those who live in it.”
In this view, the environment is the “third teacher,” alongside children and adults. It supports autonomy and collaboration. It communicates to children: you are respected, you are trusted, and your work matters.
4. Documentation as Learning and Reflection
Teachers document children’s words, actions, drawings, and questions. But this is not just for assessment; it’s a tool for reflection, curriculum design, and democratic visibility. Documentation invites teachers, children, and families into ongoing dialogue about learning (New, 2000).
The Hundred Languages
Perhaps the most iconic symbol of Reggio Emilia is Loris Malaguzzi’s poem The Hundred Languages of Children. In it, he writes of the many ways children express themselves—through drawing, dancing, constructing, playing, painting, speaking, wondering, and more. None of these ways is privileged over another. All are valid. All are necessary.
In Reggio-inspired classrooms, children’s expressive potentials are honored and cultivated. Art is not a subject or an activity—it is a way of thinking, a mode of inquiry. So is clay, music, wire, light, shadow, sculpture, dramatic play. These are the languages of learning, and they are given time and space to flourish.
Children express themselves in endless ways—through clay, dance, block structures, storytelling, drawing, light, and sound. These are not extras to be squeezed in after "real learning" happens; they are the tools through which learning is made visible (Malaguzzi, in Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 1998).
Participation as a Cultural Practice
The Reggio Emilia Approach is inherently political—not in a partisan sense, but in the way it affirms that children, families, and educators all have a role in shaping the world. Participation is not an add-on; it is woven into the fabric of school life.
This participation is active, democratic, and reciprocal. Families are co-constructors of meaning and context. Educators are collaborators and researchers, not authorities. Children’s ideas are not simply accepted—they are taken seriously.
In this way, the school becomes a public space for dialogue and co-responsibility—a place where everyone learns, contributes, and is transformed.
Listening as a Way of Being
Listening is not simply a pedagogical strategy in Reggio Emilia—it is an ethical stance. To listen means to be open to the unexpected, to value difference, and to slow down enough to truly encounter another.
Educators in Reggio practice a deep kind of listening—to children’s words, gestures, silences, and questions. This listening guides their decisions, shapes their documentation, and allows learning to emerge organically.
When adults listen in this way, children learn that their voices matter. They also learn to listen in return—to one another, to materials, to the world.
Knowledge as Co-Construction
Rather than delivering pre-determined lessons, Reggio educators co-construct knowledge with children. This means they observe carefully, ask thoughtful questions, document learning processes, and reflect collectively.
Projects often emerge from children’s questions and theories, then unfold over time as children test hypotheses, encounter obstacles, revise their ideas, and generate new possibilities. Learning is recursive, not linear. It is a process of weaving together many threads—social, cognitive, emotional, aesthetic.
This is not learning for the sake of memorization. It is learning for the sake of understanding, connection, and joy.
Documentation as Dialogue
Rather than traditional assessments, educators in Reggio Emilia document the learning process—through photographs, transcripts of conversations, displays of children’s work, and reflective notes.
This documentation is not for the sake of accountability—it is for deepening understanding. It helps children revisit and reflect. It invites families into the learning journey. It supports teachers in thinking pedagogically. It becomes a form of democratic memory and shared meaning-making.
Documentation transforms learning from something fleeting into something visible, traceable, and worthy of dialogue.
Professional Growth as Ongoing Research
Reggio educators are not technicians—they are thinkers. They work in teams. They engage in ongoing study and reflection. They meet with pedagogical coordinators. They challenge each other and grow together.
Professional development is not occasional. It is embedded in daily practice. Teaching, in this context, is a form of research—a process of inquiry that unfolds through relationship and reflection.
What It Looks Like in Practice
Let’s imagine a typical Reggio-inspired preschool day. Children arrive to a space that is calm, uncluttered, and filled with potential. There are mirrors on the walls, trays of loose parts like shells and wires, clay ready for sculpting, and an easel near the window with natural light streaming in.
A teacher might notice two children building a series of arches with wooden blocks. Rather than redirecting them to a different activity, she observes and listens. The children begin wondering if their arches could become a bridge. The teacher documents their conversation, takes a photo, and asks, "What kind of bridges have you seen before?"
The next day, she brings in books with pictures of famous bridges and invites the group to sketch their own. Another child suggests they use clay. Someone else wants to measure the length. This becomes a project that unfolds over weeks—touching on math, physics, storytelling, art, and language.
Documentation is visible throughout: a wall displays children’s bridge sketches alongside photos, quotes, and evolving ideas. The room tells the story of learning. Parents see it, the children reflect on it, and teachers use it to plan what’s next.
Why It Matters
In a world increasingly driven by efficiency, outcomes, and metrics, the Reggio Emilia Approach offers a radically different vision. It invites us to trust children, to slow down, and to value process over product. It calls us to create schools that are spaces of encounter, beauty, and democracy.
Most of all, it reminds us that education is not neutral. It is always grounded in an image of the child—and by extension, an image of society.
When we choose to see children as protagonists, to honor their hundred languages, and to participate with them in co-constructing meaning, we are shaping not only their future but our shared humanity.
A Pedagogy of Listening and Democracy
The Reggio Emilia Approach is not a perfect model, nor is it meant to be exported wholesale. It is a context-driven philosophy that invites educators everywhere to reflect on their own image of the child, their values, and their environment. What it offers is not a checklist but a challenge: to slow down, to listen deeply, to make learning visible, and to trust children as full human beings.
As Loris Malaguzzi wrote, "Nothing without joy." Reggio is a pedagogy of joy, of respect, of curiosity. But more than anything, it’s a pedagogy of relationship. In a time of increasing standardization and speed, Reggio reminds us that learning is not a race. It’s a shared journey.
References
- Gandini, L. (2008). Introduction to the fundamental values of the education of young children in Reggio Emilia. In Edwards, C., Gandini, L., & Forman, G. (Eds.) The Hundred Languages of Children.
- Gandini, L. (n.d.). Recommendations for Parents and Teachers. North American Reggio Emilia Alliance. https://www.reggioalliance.org/lella-gandini-recommendations/
- New, R. S. (2000). Reggio Emilia: An Essential Tool to Develop the Child's Mind. ERIC Digest. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED464766.pdf
References
- Reggio Children – Education
- Malaguzzi, Loris. “The Hundred Languages of Children”
- Edwards, C., Gandini, L., & Forman, G. (Eds.). The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation
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