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liaison with parents and practitioners in different settings. Consequently,
there is a need for greater professionalism amongst early childhood
teachers to enable them to function as change agents; to articulate the
theories that guide their practice; to provide models of skilled, expert
practice, and establish discourse and research communities. (Wood &
Bennett, 1999, p. 647)
The professional development program developed for the state of Ohio as
described by Miller and Shoptaugh (2004) was a long-term initiative conducted across
four public school sites. The most effective example of change comes from the school
site where the “teachers had aligned themselves most with the philosophy of Reggio
Emilia” (p. 254). These teachers continue to work together to create an environment of
support and challenge using a project-based design to attend to curriculum requirements
and children’s interest.
The Reggio Emilia approach was selected as a framework for this professional
development initiative because of its underlying beliefs of collegiality, public
demonstration, and sharing of practices (Miller & Shoptaugh, 2004). Others have also
found that the role of the Reggio teacher corresponds with the research on teacher
collaboration (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993; Fu et al., 2002). The image of the teacher
within the Reggio Emilia schools seems congruent with that of a reflective, professional
practitioner.
The conceptualization of the teacher as collaborator and researcher reflects a
theoretical shift from a view of learning as primarily individually centred to one that is
fundamentally socially and culturally situated (Putnam & Borko, 1997). Moyles (2001)
found that working in partnership with researchers, practitioners “have shown themselves
able to engage in high level, critical (and passionate) reflection on their own practices, to
link associated theory and to challenge political prescription” (p. 81). Expressing stories