The 12th NAREA Summer Conference

The North American Reggio Emilia Alliance Board would like to welcome you to The Twelfth NAREA Summer Conference in Toronto, ON, Engaging Children,
Families, and Educators in a Spiral of Learning: Embracing Openness and Uncertainty.

Since last summer, we have had the privilege of offering many professional development opportunities with many wonderful hosts: the Eleventh NAREA Summer Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; the inaugural Beyond Preschool: Connecting with Reggio Emilia’s Values and Principles, in Atlanta, Georgia; the Seventh NAREA Winter Conference in Miami, Florida; and the Brick by Brick series held in Michigan and New England. We are excited to continue to bring together educators with the aim of supporting and strengthening all those interested in the experiences and ongoing research of Reggio Emilia, Italy. We hope this conference offers a rich and meaningful contribution to your ongoing professional development.

It is with special gratitude that we welcome our colleagues, Moira Nicolosi and Giovanna Cagliari from Reggio Emilia, Italy. We wish to extend our appreciation to the Ontario Reggio Association and the educators from Bishop Strachan School, the Rainbow District School Board, Algonquin Early Learning Centre, Jacob Hespeler Child Care Centre, Schoolhouse Playcare Centre of Lakehead

Inc., and Compass Early Learning and Care for hosting this initiative and supporting the planning connected to it.

We wish to highlight our belief in and commitment to the value of embracing history, identity, and cultural diversity and differences as essential aspects of personal and professional development. Recognizing the ever-increasing number of programs inspired by Reggio’s approach to life and education, we honor and encourage each program and every group of colleagues to invest in an ongoing approach that includes permanent study, research, collaboration, innovation, transparency, and exchange. Through our professional development projects, we encounter a host of schools at varying points of their own journey, willing to open their doors, expose their work, and welcome the participation of visitors. This style of development has been introduced to all of us by the only “Reggio schools” of Reggio Emilia, Italy. To be continually encouraged to find our own unique identities as schools in different communities worthy in our own identity is to see how much the message of Reggio Emilia is based on attitudes of research and innovation, rather than prescriptive dogma. For this, we are also grateful.

Please enjoy the pleasure of thinking and wondering as we work together to construct a better future for our children, our communities, and ourselves.