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The Reggio Emilia Approach refers to an innovative approach to early childhood
education that began in Reggio Emilia, Italy shortly after the Second World War. It is
based on the theories of social construction and a philosophy that supports emergent
curriculum.
Deliberation in this study refers to a systematic and dynamic process in which
there is a search for the best alternative when making curriculum choices. It is based on
the theories of Joseph Schwab (1978).
Community of learners refers to a function for teaching and learning that crosses
the boundaries of culture, disciplines, schools, and ways of thinking, to explore
possibilities based on the Reggio Emilia approach to education as a place where every
student is a teacher and every teacher is a student (Fu, Stremmel, & Hill, 2002).
Image in this study describes a picture in the mind. As well, it refers to a
reputation or the opinion or concept of something that is held by the public. It is the
image of the child or learner and the image of the teacher that influences pedagogical
orientations (Fu et al., 2002). Eisner (1991) suggests that images have a powerful
instrumental function because of their generalizing capacity. Images therefore can aid in
the transference of what has been learned from one situation to another.
Underlying Principles
The underlying l principles for this dissertation include Piagetian constructivism
and, Vygotskian social learning theory. Constructivism as an educational paradigm is an
epistemology, a learner meaning-making theory, which explains the nature of knowledge
and how we learn (Richardson, 1997). According to the theory, knowledge is acquired