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As I envision the future, it holds many positive opportunities for the field of early
childhood education.
Fu (2002) calls the challenge to reinvent the Reggio Emilia approach within our
own situational context as “a pedagogy of hope and possibilities” (p. 23). I hope that
these four testimonies of practice will illustrate for others the value of change and the
transformation which is possible. All four cases, even Mary’s, illustrate possibilities.
Now, with the Hundred Languages of Children Exhibit on display in Toronto for the first
time possibilities seem endless. After close to 20 years of touring in over 30 different
cities in North America, from September 2006 to February 2007, this exhibit is reaching
thousands of educators in Toronto.
A catalyst for change.
In many communities around the world the exhibit has become a catalyst for
change. These beautiful panels of hope and possibility have reached many individual
educators, administrators, and policy makers. They, like me, have felt the impact.
Abramson and Huggins (1999) have chronicled the affect of the exhibit on the state of
California where support for the initiative had state, regional, and local representation.
The exhibit garnered the attention of the media and, with many professional development
opportunities offered, individuals, institutions, and communities changed the way they
viewed children and teachers. The impact of the exhibit became like a stone dropped into
water with deliberation. The result was many ripples of change and transformation.
Concurrently, more child care centres across North America are now
reconsidering their physical environment after being inspired by the pre-primary schools
of Reggio Emilia. A quarterly journal devoted to articles by North American and Italian