The 4th NAREA Fall Conference

Children and Adults: Researching Learning Together

Welcome to our 4^th fall conference, a gathering of inquisitive minds in education. Whether this is your first NAREA conference or your 21^st, we are eager to explore with you the conference focus, teachers and children researching together.

We are thrilled to return to Indianapolis, the “Crossroads of America.” The host community is no stranger to NAREA, the Reggio Emilia Approach, and advocating for the rights of children, families, and educators. As prior hosts of The Wonder of Learning – The Hundred Languages of Children exhibition at the Indianapolis State House, this community continues to lead by example. We are grateful to the Butler University College of Education for hosting this initiative and supporting its planning.

With heartfelt gratitude, we welcome our colleagues, Claudia Giudici, Sara De Poi, and Jane McCall from Reggio Emilia, Italy. Through their contributions, we continue to construct multi-layered interpretations of the values, philosophies, and experiences of Reggio Emilia’s municipal infant-toddler centers and preschools.

We thank the children, families, and educators of St. Mary’s Early Childhood Center (two locations) and Indianapolis Public Schools/Butler University Laboratory Schools (two locations), who graciously invited us to visit their schools during this conference. We look forward to it!

Through conferences, we encounter schools at varying points in their history, willing to open their doors, share their work, and welcome the participation of visitors. We honor and encourage each school and every group of visiting colleagues to invest in this ongoing approach that includes permanent study, research, collaboration, innovation, transparency, and exchange. This encouragement from Reggio Emilia is based on attitudes of research and innovation rather than prescriptive dogma.

To update you a bit about NAREA, since last fall, we have had the privilege of offering professional development opportunities to educators throughout North America: The 19^th Summer Conference in Atlanta, Georgia; The 14^th NAREA Winter Conference in Toronto, Ontario; and the “Fundamentals of the Reggio Emilia Approach” webinar series. In addition, we managed two exhibitions and ateliers from Reggio Emilia, Bordercrossings: Encounters With Living Things/Digital Landscapes exhibition and atelier and Mosaic of Marks, Words, Material exhibition and atelier, published three issues of Innovations in Early Education: The International Reggio Emilia Exchange, donated mark-making materials to underserved communities in New Mexico, and managed Reggio Children and NAREA resource sales in the NAREA Shop. We do what we do to support educators like you throughout North America.

As we settle in for the conference, we wish you a joyful time researching and learning together.

October 5–7, 2023 | Indianapolis, Indiana