Join the Africa Reggio Emilia Alliance in Johannesburg for “Through the Eyes of a Child: The Wonder of Learning”, a conference on the Reggio Emilia approach organised with the participation of Reggio Children.
Conference dates: 2-3 April 2025
In-person workshop (70 pax): 4 April 2025
Venue: Reddam House Waterfall Early Learning School, Country Estate Drive, Waterfall, Midrand
Rediscover your passion for education at the conference and explore interconnections between critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication in the conference’s atelier spaces. Wonder at children’s capabilities reflected in documentation displays and the extraordinary potential of everyday materials.
Please note: conference registration is now closed! Early bird registration closes on 28 January 2025. Contact: admin@reggio.co.za for more information.
Our keynote speakers will be Tiziana Filippini and Paola Strozzi, two pedagogistas who worked on the historical team alongside Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia approach. Both have spent many years immersed in the educational project of the municipal infant toddler centres and preschools of Reggio Emilia in Italy, working closely as young professionals alongside founder Loris Malaguzzi before his untimely death in 1994.
Paola Strozzi was born in and lives and works in Reggio Emilia in Italy. After graduating as an elementary teacher in 1973, she studied in Florence at the Special School of Social Services from 1972 to 1976. She has over 30 years’ teaching experience in Reggio Emilia where she first taught from 1970-1980 at Acobaleno municipal infant toddler centre. Thereafter she taught for 23 years at the Diana preschool, where she spent 4 years teaching a child with autism.
From 2004 – 2006 she worked at the Centre of Documentation and Educational Research of the Istituzione Scuole e Nidi d’Infanzia at the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre in Reggio Emilia. In February 2004 she was jointly responsible for the organization of three concurrent sessions: “Making Learning Visible, the Languages of Evaluation and Assessment”, “A Difference in Ethics or an Ethic of Differences” and “Sciences among Research, Poetry and Beauty” at the international conference Crossing Boundaries.
She graduated in 2007 in Primary Education Sciences from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia with a research paper on “The point of view coordination at preschool” with Prof MG Bartolini Bussi.
From 2007 to 2018 she worked as a pedagogista on the pedagogical coordinating team of the Istituzione Scuole e Nidi d’Infanzia of the municipality of Reggio Emilia. She currently collaborates with Reggio Children giving presentations on educational documentation and professional development at seminars and exchanges in Italy and abroad.
Tiziana Filippini is a pedagogista and collaborator with Reggio Children, Italy. She has a degree in psychology from Padova University and worked as pedagogista from 1978 to 2015 as a member of the Pedagogical Coordinating Team of the Istituzione – Preschools and Infant Toddler Centres of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia. In particular, Tiziana was the long-standing pedagogista of the famous Diana Preschool, which came to the world’s attention when it was featured by Newsweek in 1991 as one of the 10 best schools in the world.
She coordinated the Documentation and Educational Research Centre of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia (1994-2009). Tiziana was member of the Board of Reggio Children from 1994 to 2007 and now collaborates with Reggio Children on current research projects, speaking at international conferences, and consulting widely in the field of early childhood education. She was referent for the exhibition The Hundred Languages of Children which now travels the world and has been viewed by thousands of educators and members of the public throughout the world.
Tiziana is an appointed curator of the exhibition about young children and their learning called The Wonder of Learning: The Hundred Languages of Children. Tiziana has coordinated the professional development activities for teachers and atelieriste at the infant-toddler centres and preschools in Reggio Emilia and has a sustained interest in the ongoing investment in teacher education worldwide. In 2011 she was appointed as the pedagogical supervisor of ‘Officina Educativa’, the Department of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia which works with the compulsory primary school in Reggio Emilia for children aged 6-14 years.
During her many years of experience, Tiziana has frequently travelled the world speaking at schools, colleges and universities about the experiences of the infant-toddler centres, preschools and primary school of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, a system that has earned world-wide acclaim and is known for its authenticity, excellence and democratic approach. Tiziana was part of a collaborative research group with Harvard University that closely examined the system and work of Reggio Emilia. The project, Making Learning Visible, focused on creating strong learning cultures in schools using documentation as a tool to deepen and extend learning. Tiziana has been invited on three occasions to participate as a Presidential International Visiting Scholar, and in May 2015, Wheelock College in Boston awarded her with an honorary Doctorate in Education.
Marina Castagnetti – who many might remember as the keynote speaker at 
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