Welcome Letter
With great pleasure, we welcome you to the 14th NAREA Winter Conference, “Educational Research: An Essential and Ethical Dimension in the Life of Children and Adults.”
We mark our 21st year of working with Reggio Children and local communities to bring professional development opportunities to more than 200,000 educators, families, advocates, policymakers, and community members across North America. Working from a space of hopefulness and optimism, we offer our annual conferences, a variety of initiatives, webinars, publications, exhibitions, and resources to support an elevated vision of education based on a new image of children, families, and communities. This year, we return to Toronto, a host community with a long history of dialogue, critical reflection, and relationship with those who act on the rights of children and adults. We are happy to be back!
Our colleagues from Reggio Emilia, Italy, Tiziana Filippini, Consuelo Damasi, and interpreter Jane McCall, will support our understanding as we continue to construct strong interpretations of the values, principles, and experiences of the Preschools and Infant-toddler Centers – Istituzione of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia. For that, we are most grateful, and we thank them.
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. With gratitude, we recognize Bishop Strachan School, the children, educators, and families for receiving us into their context. 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.
As we enter the topic of educational research with our Reggio colleagues over the next three days, we invite you to embrace an innovative pedagogy grounded in the belief of Loris Malaguzzi that intelligent children deserve intelligent teachers. We applaud you for your efforts.
Chi miigwech, merci, grazie mille, thank you.
With nostalgia for the future,
NAREA Board and Staff
Program
Saturday, March 18
Morning Coffee
Boarders’ Dining Hall and Student Centre
Welcome
Steven K. Hudson Theatre
Karyn Callaghan, NAREA board member and ORA president
The Preschools and Infant-Toddler Centers as Research Workshops
Tiziana Filippini and Consuelo Damasi
Mid-Morning Break [with light snack and beverages]
Boarders’ Dining Hall and Student Centre
Announcements and Lunch
Lunch in Boarders’ Dining Hall and Student Centre
Tour of Bishop Strachan School
Russell Hill Road Entrance [capacity 240]
Mosaic of Marks, Words, Material Exhibition and Atelier
Great Hall
End of Day
Featured Speakers
Since 1999, Consuelo Damasi has been working in the role of atelierista, a teacher with a specialization in the languages of the atelier, for the Preschools and Infant-toddler Centers – Istituzione of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia. Consuelo worked for several years in the Iqbal Masih municipal preschool and is currently working in the Andersen municipal preschool.
In 1991, Consuelo received her diploma in applied arts from Reggio Emilia’s G. Chierici Art Institute high school. In 1997, she received her diploma of higher culture from Bologna’s Fine Arts Academy in the school of painting. She has collaborated with pedagogistas, educators, and atelieristas on the concept, realization, and management of the city ateliers at the Loris Malaguzzi International Center. Consuelo has collaborated on journeys of professional learning on the theme of continuity with the primary school and on the language of photography for teachers in various levels of school in Italy.
Tiziana Filippini is a psychologist who collaborates with Reggio Children on the realization of publishing projects, consulting, and professional learning journeys through her participation in conferences and workshops in Italy and around the world. From 1978–2015, Tiziana was a pedagogista in the pedagogical coordinating team of the Preschools and Infant-toddler Centers – Istituzione of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia. In 2000, she was given responsibility for the Complex Organisation Unit of the pedagogical coordinating team, and in this role, she followed the areas of research, professional learning, and educational progettazione (design) and documentation.
For several years, Tiziana was responsible for the Documentation and Educational Research Center of the Preschools and Infant-toddler Centers – Istituzione of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia. In the role of pedagogical supervisor, she also collaborated with Reggio Emilia’s municipal Officina Educativa, a cross-school educational service. Tiziana has authored several articles and worked on the curation of many Reggio Children exhibitions and publications..
Jane McCall has worked as a freelance interpreter and translator for Reggio Children for over 20 years. She has interpreted for Reggio educators at international study groups in Reggio Emilia, Italy, as well as at conferences with Reggio speakers in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, South Africa, and China. In addition, Jane translated Loris Malaguzzi’s writings and speeches in Loris Malaguzzi and the Schools of Reggio Emilia: A Selection of His Writings and Speeches, 1945–1993. She also translated Vea Vecchi’s writings in Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia: Exploring the Role and Potential of Ateliers in Early Childhood Education.
Ateliers
Session 1 (Thursday) | Session 5 (Friday)
CAPACITY OF 35
Mosaic of Marks, Words, Material Exhibition and Atelier
Facilitated by Gabriela Garcia
Room 112 | Great Hall (1st floor)
Since the beginning of time, humans have left their mark in the world. From ancient cave drawings to famous works of art, mark-making expresses thinking. Drawing and telling stories means imagining, analyzing, and exploring spaces, forms, colors, words, metaphors, emotions, rhythms, and pauses, entering into a narrative dimension that is both internal and external to the self, playing on reality, fiction, and interpretations. This atelier provides educators with opportunities to encounter mark-making materials in a hands-on encounter inspired by the educators in Reggio Emilia.
Session 2 (Thursday) | Session 6 (Friday)
CAPACITY OF 40
Mark-Making with Infants and Toddlers
Facilitated by Jessica Vailes
Rooms 372 + 374 (3rd floor)
Children everywhere love drawing from a very young age, even when it is not visible or tangible to us, whether it is tracing lines in the sand, making marks with sticks on the ground, or the condensation on windows. This atelier is intentionally rich in mark-making tools and materials that receive marks geared for infants and toddlers, offering a time for exploration, experimentation, dialogue, and reflection around the contexts we offer our youngest children, giving value to children’s competencies and their desires to explore.
Session 3 (Thursday) | Session 7 (Friday)
CAPACITY OF 40
Black and White Palette
Facilitated by Kristi Reinhardt
Rooms 282 + 284 (2nd floor)
Defining forms and methods of communication helps us to choose what we observe with greater awareness. We wonder: What relationships are established between the drawing instruments and the supports? By designing contexts within an established palette, we can focus on what each material affords. In this atelier, participants choose and explore materials within a defined palette of black, white, and gray materials while discovering connections and confronting the unforeseen.
Session 4 (Thursday) | Session 8 (Friday)
CAPACITY OF 35
Ephemeral Marks
Facilitated by Kym Cook
Room 371 | Art Room (3rd floor)
The digital and natural worlds come together in this atelier, creating a sort of dialogue between the two and making it possible to discover unusual ways of mark-making. We wonder in which ways the dialogue between the digital tools and materials from nature can enhance the construction of knowledge for children as well as adults and what new worlds and possibilities they might open up for us. How might ephemeral marks, marks that are transitory and fleeting, create new scenarios for investigation?
Facilitator Biographies
Kym is a studio educator at Peachtree Presbyterian Preschool in Atlanta, Georgia and is in her 18th year with Project Infinity. She has been working in the early childhood education field for over 26 years. Kym studied art and education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the University of Montana. The experiences of motherhood and teaching have kept her world full of color and three study tours in Reggio Emilia raised that to technicolor.
Gabriela is a strong advocate for the rights of young children and is passionate about the Reggio Emilia Approach. She is a founding member of Project Infinity and the founding director of the Grant Park Cooperative Preschool in Atlanta, Georgia, where she worked as executive director and pedagogista for 20 years. Originally from Mendoza, Argentina, Gabriela is fluent in Spanish and English. She is currently a program associate at NAREA, supporting professional development partnerships and other NAREA initiatives.
Kristi is a studio educator at Peachtree Presbyterian Preschool in Atlanta, Georgia. With 11 years of experience working in a Reggio-inspired school, she brings her love of photography and innovation to the daily life with children and families. Kristi assisted with the Bordercrossings atelier and the Mosaic of Marks, Words, Material atelier at the 2022 NAREA Summer Conference, as well as several community ateliers, in Atlanta. She studied therapeutic recreation, applied behavior analysis, and photography at Indiana University.
Jessica has been an educator at Peachtree Presbyterian Preschool since 2001. She first fell in love with the Reggio Emilia Approach to learning when she participated in a Reggio-inspired professional development initiative at one of the original collaborative schools of Project Infinity in 2003. Jessica then became an integral part of the process of Peachtree’s study and transition to a Reggio-inspired preschool. She has participated in NAREA conferences in Tulsa, New York, and Washington, DC, and two study groups in Reggio Emilia.
Breakouts
Session 1 (Thursday)
CAPACITY OF 250
Mosaic of Marks, Words, Material–Backstory to the Research
Tiziana Filippini and Consuelo Damasi
Steven K. Hudson Theatre | Performing Arts Upper Gallery (2nd floor)
A presentation from the Preschools and Infant-toddler Centers – Istituzione of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Italy.
Session 2 (Friday)
CAPACITY OF 80
Elements Atelier – In Dialogue with the Ravine
Facilitated by Jessie Sawyers and Shelley van Benschop, Bishop Strachan School educators
Meet at Main Entrance | Russell Hill Road Entrance (1st floor)
We believe education is being in relationship. So we uphold a shared vision of the relationships between humans, more-than-humans, and nature, based on respect, interdependence, and reciprocity. Join us in the ravine to explore the marks we can make with our natural surroundings. The ravine is a space of possibility in every season and all weather. Our engagement with the ravine holds a vast potential to support ecological sensibilities. Through gestures of care, empathy, and curiosity, we are with nature to think, wonder, and find joy together. Anyone interested in participating in this experience should dress for the weather. Please be sure to bring your boots, warm clothes, coats, hats, gloves, and scarf to be comfortable during the experience.
Session 3 (Friday)
CAPACITY OF 30
Affinity Group
Self-organized by participants
Room 281 (2nd floor)
An opportunity to mingle with fellow educators and administrators to discuss various topics of interest. This is a self-directed session with no pre-defined agenda.Here are a few suggested ways to organize: infant-toddler teachers, preschool teachers, school age teachers, or by specific topics from the conference. Table cards will be available in the breakout room for designating your chosen focus.
Session 4 (Friday)
CAPACITY OF 30
Francophone Affinity Group
Facilitated by Dominique-Ann Boisvert and Rachelle Blanchette
Room 285 (2nd floor)
A time and space for Francophones to engage in a reflective exchange on experiences and learning during the conference. This session utilizes the French version of the exhibition to enrich dialogue.
Together, we are empowering exceptional education.
