Implementing a Reggio Emilia inspired approach in a mainstream Western Australian context: The impact on early childhood teachers' professional role
type: CreativeWork
description: Reggio Emilia, an approach to early childhood that was developed in a Northern Italian city of the same name, is highly regarded as acknowledged by educators and researchers world-wide (Gandini, 1993). The Reggio Emilia philosophy is distinguished by the presentation of an image of children as being strong, rich and powerful learners (Hendricks, 2004; Millikan, 2003). This approach is marked as being adopted and adapted to suit particular cultural and educational settings. These situation sensitive approaches are noted as being Reggio Emilia inspired. This qualitative case study investigated how the professional role of four early childhood teachers was impacted by the implementation of a Reggio Emilia inspired approach in a mainstream Western Australian context. As part of the investigation, the factors that facilitated the change process and those which inhibited it were identified. The study was conducted in two schools, one private and the other government. The study participants were four pre-primary teachers who were implementing a Reggio Emilia inspired approach in their pre-primary settings. A school leader from each of the study schools was also interviewed. Qualitative data collection methods included observation, semi-structured interviews, field notes, reflective journals and document analysis. Data were analysed using thematic analysis procedures. The study found that as the teachers engaged with the Reggio Emilia philosophy, they were challenged to change their pedagogical practices which, in turn, impacted on their professional role. These changes were found to conform to the Reggio Emilia approach as described by Fu, Stemmel and Hill (2002). While the factors that influenced the change process differed across the two cases, there were commonalities. The first of these was the influence of the school’s policies and governance. In one of the cases, the lack of support from the school leadership team, processes and policies impacted negatively on the ch…
abstract: Reggio Emilia, an approach to early childhood that was developed in a Northern Italian city of the same name, is highly regarded as acknowledged by educators and researchers world-wide (Gandini, 1993). The Reggio Emilia philosophy is distinguished by the presentation of an image of children as being strong, rich and powerful learners (Hendricks, 2004; Millikan, 2003). This approach is marked as being adopted and adapted to suit particular cultural and educational settings. These situation sensitive approaches are noted as being Reggio Emilia inspired. This qualitative case study investigated how the professional role of four early childhood teachers was impacted by the implementation of a Reggio Emilia inspired approach in a mainstream Western Australian context. As part of the investigation, the factors that facilitated the change process and those which inhibited it were identified. The study was conducted in two schools, one private and the other government. The study participants were four pre-primary teachers who were implementing a Reggio Emilia inspired approach in their pre-primary settings. A school leader from each of the study schools was also interviewed. Qualitative data collection methods included observation, semi-structured interviews, field notes, reflective journals and document analysis. Data were analysed using thematic analysis procedures. The study found that as the teachers engaged with the Reggio Emilia philosophy, they were challenged to change their pedagogical practices which, in turn, impacted on their professional role. These changes were found to conform to the Reggio Emilia approach as described by Fu, Stemmel and Hill (2002). While the factors that influenced the change process differed across the two cases, there were commonalities. The first of these was the influence of the school’s policies and governance. In one of the cases, the lack of support from the school leadership team, processes and policies impacted negatively on the ch…
author: Hall, Claire
keywords: Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia inspired approach, early childhood, role of the teacher, change to teacher role, pedagogical change, Australia, barriers to change, facilitators to change, Education, Educational Methods
date published: 2013-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-27T19:22:46Z
provider: Edith Cowan University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia