Abstract
Background: In the history of early childhood education (ECE), language is viewed as key in teaching and learning. Children in the ECE are mostly confined to verbal communication which, to a certain extent, restricts their imagination and inventive ability. Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy, initiated the Hundred Languages of Children (HLC) as a pedagogical approach to enable children to interact and communicate.Aim: This study aims to explore the role of HLC through the experiences and views of the four ECE practitioners in the Gauteng province. Drawing on Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, the author argues that ECE children possess different kinds of minds, and therefore they learn in different ways.Setting: Two Early Childhood centres in the Gauteng Province of South Africa were selected for this study because they had adopted Malaguzzi’s HLC approach to constructing concepts to help children structure knowledge and organise learning.Methods: The author used one-on-one interviews to get ECE practitioners’ experiences on using Malaguzzi’s HLC. To corroborate the interviews’ data, the author conducted classroom observations and document analysis.Results: The participants viewed Malaguzzi’s HLC as an enabler to meet the requirement of the two sets of curricula from the Department of Social Development (the National Curriculum Framework for children from 0 to 4 years) and from the Department of Basic Education (the Curriculum Assessment and Policy Statement for 5-year-old children).Conclusion: The findings show a paradigm shift, as children become active constructors of their own knowledge.
Highlights
Language is an important component of any education system, because it plays a key role in the implementation of teaching and learning activities
The early childhood education (ECE) practitioners attested that they saw the children as individuals and as a result, they provided an enabling environment for them to be able to communicate their unique abilities in different ways
Some time was spent watching the children playing with the animals, talking to each other and asking the ECE practitioner if they could put some of the animals in the zoo or the homestead boxes
Summary
Language is an important component of any education system, because it plays a key role in the implementation of teaching and learning activities This statement is supported by the study conducted by Pinnock and Vijayakumar (2009) which explored the role played by school language in educational success or failure. Law (2015) confirms the importance of language in ECE by pointing out that it affects a child’s experiences both at home and at school He further theorises that language introduces a child to the social world and to the formation of relationships, helping them to develop the capacity to interact with others and, to learn. The study reported in this article aims to explore and describe the role of Malaguzzi’s HLC1 as a pedagogical approach which enables children to interact and communicate with others and within their environment. Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy, initiated the Hundred Languages of Children (HLC) as a pedagogical approach to enable children to interact and communicate
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