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for the kid’s interests. You usually picked all your themes by September and it was based
on what you enjoyed.” At the time, according to Layla, she was not aware of an
alternative approach to curriculum planning.
Layla was content with this approach. She found pre-planning compatible with a
need to be organized. Layla became an ardent “devotee of themes” and their
corresponding activities. “I had my cut outs in little envelopes.” Resistant to change her
practice, she had become aligned with this common framework of using a weekly theme
to define curriculum. During the focus group session, Layla reflected on the time when
she was asked to discontinue the theme approach to focus on emergent curriculum.
Three years ago I had a hard time knowing that we were going to have
Christmas but not make paper bag Santas’ with the cut out beard. We were
not going to make reindeer hats with the antlers. We were not going to
make angels out of toilet paper rolls with doilies. I thought “what is this
world coming to?”
Introduction to emergent curriculum.
Six years earlier Layla’s director visited a Reggio Emilia inspired child care
program attached to a community college. Upon returning, the pronouncement was made
that the curriculum, the environment, and the philosophy at the child care centre would
change towards the direction taken by the college’s program. The process of change was
gradual. Beginning with the environment, commercial toys were replaced with loose
materials resplendent with child-initiated possibilities. Natural items, such as stones,
sticks, shells, and other found materials were made available to the children to use,
combine, and create their own inventions.
Initially resistant to the study of the philosophy, Layla slowly became transformed
in her teaching practices. Recognizing that adaptation was a condition of her