In Dialogue with Indications: Connecting Contexts through Co-reflection

Join us for a three-part series designed to reflect on the booklet Indications.  This concise publication describes the congruence between principles and practice in the Infant-Toddler Centres and Preschools in Reggio Emilia, providing opportunities for ongoing meaningful critical reflection.  We will consider what these principles mean in our context, and also engage in processes of thinking together that will support similar conversations within programs and schools that are also striving for congruence and critical reflection.

Monday, January 17, 2022
Monday, February 7, 2022
Monday, February 28, 2022

6:45 – 8:15 p.m.  You will receive a Zoom link closer to the event.

Current and new ORA members/organizational members are invited to join.

Registration fee: $40 (All proceeds will support the Mosaic of Marks Exhibit in 2023.)

You can purchase the Indications booklet from A Different Drummer Books.
Please read this 20-page publication before the series begins.

The Ontario Reggio Association is inspired and grounded by the work of educators in Reggio Emilia and by the principles found in Reggio Emilia’s Indications publication. ORA’s mission and vision are rooted in study and discourse about the interplay of Indications principles, How Does Learning Happen? and the lived experiences and contexts of early learning educators in Ontario.

How do we know when our practice is congruent with our values and beliefs?  What should anyone entering an early learning program – children or adults – see, hear, experience if that program claims to be based on strongly held views that children and adults are competent, capable of complex thinking, and valuable contributors to learning and to their community?  What would they not see?

In Reggio Emilia, the concise 20-page booklet called Indications was written, a result of wide community involvement and participatory consultation, to ensure that the guiding criteria for operating the infant-toddler centres and preschools are transparent, shared, and put into practice.  It underscores the essential characteristics and founding principles of their educational and cultural project.  It serves as the basic legally binding document of reference to guide choices and decisions.

Included in this booklet are twelve principles of the educational project.  It does not function as a checklist, but rather as a weaving.  It serves as a touchstone for reflection for educators and staff, and as a reliable foundation for families, so they are able to both understand and question decisions so they can be valuable contributors.  Because our pedagogical documents in Ontario, How Does Learning Happen? and The Kindergarten Program have philosophical basis in the Reggio Emilia philosophy, Indications also provides us with rich provocation.

The Ontario Reggio Association invites you to participate in a three-part series designed to reflect on Indications, and to consider what the principles mean in our context.  This series will provide a good entry point for educators who are curious to gain deeper understanding of the principles that are also foundational in Ontario’s pedagogy, as well as for those who are hungry for dialogue about congruity between values and practice.

Registration is limited.