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change their interactions based on their reflections is behaviour that is valued and
encouraged (Rankin, 2004). This role has resulted in the adoption of an image of the
teacher as researcher (Hewett, 2001). So important is this image, that Malaguzzi (1998)
suggested education without research “is education without interest” (p. 73). Continual
internal dialogues and discussions with others provide ongoing training and theoretical
enrichment. Teachers see themselves as researchers, preparing documentation of their
work with children (Fu, 2002).
Documentation: Teachers and children as partners.
To be respectful of children’s and teacher’s ideas and processes of learning, the
curriculum in a Reggio Emilia school cannot be planned in advance. Curriculum emerges
from the children’s interest and is fluid, generative, and dynamic (Hendrick, 2004).
Curriculum is co-constructed in the process of each activity or project. During this
process, teachers are learning how to “make learning visible”—their own and that of the
children (New, 2003, p. 37). Careful consideration and attention is given to presenting the
children’s learning. The teacher’s commentary on the purposes of the study and the
children’s learning process, transcriptions of children’s verbal language, photographs of
their activity, and representations of their thinking in many media are composed in
carefully designed panels or books (Cadwell, 2003).
These documentation panels and books offer possibilities for children to see
themselves from another point of view while they are learning. Documentation also helps
the teachers understand how children learn. Teachers can develop their own hypotheses
on teaching, creating new contexts, problems and instruments, which can be offered to
the children’s own knowledge-building processes. When teachers support children’s