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children could acquire the skills of critical thinking and collaboration, essential to
rebuilding and ensuring a democratic society (Gandini, 2002). This strong sense of
purpose inspired the late Loris Malaguzzi to join in this collaborative effort (New,
2000a). Malaguzzi was a young teacher influenced by Dewey and is credited with being
the guiding force behind the unique philosophy that emerged. For Malaguzzi, it is the
legacy of those concerned parents that started the first preschools that inspired his efforts.
In one of his interviews, speaking of the first school, Villa Cella, he said:
They asked for nothing less than that these schools which they had built
with their own hands be different kinds of schools, preschools that could
educate their children in a way different from before. . . . These were
parents’ thoughts, expressing a universal aspiration, a declaration against
the betrayal of children’s potentials, and a warning that children first of all
had to be taken seriously and believed in. (Malaguzzi, 1998, p. 58)
Guiding principles of the Reggio Emilia approach.
While the educators in Reggio Emilia acknowledge the influence of Dewey, as
well as Piaget and Vygotsky, their emphasis on educational experience that focuses on
continuous research and analysis of practice has caused them to formulate new theoretical
interpretations, hypotheses, ideas, and strategies of their own about teaching and learning
(Stremmel, 2002a). There are distinct guiding principles or fundamental ideas emanating
from the research and analysis that provide the foundation of the Reggio Emilia program.
While presented separately for clarity and condensed for brevity they “must be
considered as a tightly connected, coherent philosophy in which each point influences,
and is influenced by all the others” (Gandini, 2002, p. 16). The six principles are:
1. the image of the child
2. the three subjects of education: children, parents and teachers
3. the image of the teacher