Early childhood education, politics, and memory: tracing social imaginaries in Reggio Emilia schools’ diaries of the 1970s

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this paper, I examine memory as it relates to politics and early childhood education in the context of the internationally known preschools of Reggio Emilia in Italy. I draw a connection between foundational stories, ideologies connected to Italian politics in the 1970s, and the construction of the educational visions in these preschools. To do so, I examine school diaries from the 1970s that I encountered in the Reggio Emilia schools’ official archives – the Centre for Documentation and Educational Research. These diaries, which are mostly unpublished, have a great value: they show us how stories about the past and visions of the future can merge to constitute the social and political imaginary of a school community, with the power of shaping the decisions, actions, and beliefs of its members. Though much of the literature around the so-called Reggio Emilia Approach used in the Reggio Emilia schools talks about the “democratic” character of its educational practices, it often does not touch on the specific political character historically associated with such an approach. In this article, I begin to address this lacuna.