Feminist tales of teaching and resistance: reimagining gender in early childhood education (Reggio Emilia, Italy)

ABSTRACT

This article investigates whether the memories of women’s movements that grew out of the Italian Resistance to the Nazi-Fascist Regime during the Second World War have left any legacy to women teachers in early childhood education. The article focuses on the case of internationally renowned and high-quality schools for young children, the municipal schools of a northern Italian town called Reggio Emilia. In contrast to much of the literature on gender and early childhood education, this paper reveals that many women teachers in these schools think of themselves as agents of social change, and that this is tied to their memories of the Italian Resistance.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood education
• gender
• Reggio Emilia Approach
• feminism
• history

Acknowledgements

I extend my appreciation to those women who have participated in my study. Without their contribution, this article would have not been possible. I also thank the Institution of Preschool and Infant Toddler Centres of Reggio Emilia for their collaboration, and Dr. Jo-Anne Dillabough and Dr. Philip Gardner for their support and guidance throughout my doctoral research. I am grateful to Henry Schmidt, Sofia Zaragocin and Katharine Jenkins for editorial comments on previous drafts of this paper. Support for this research was provided by the Derek Brewer Studentship at Emmanuel College and the Cambridge Home Scholarship Scheme.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Lidia Greci was Municipal Assessor of Reggio Emilia between 1956 and 1960, and 1964 and 1966, and she was also an active member of the Italian Women’s Union of Reggio Emilia.

2. In this context, preschools are for children from zero to three years old, and infant-toddler centers for children from three to six years old.

3. In Italy, education is provided by three institutional types: state schools, schools funded by other public institutions (such as the local municipalities), and privately funded schools.

4. The findings that I present in this article include two focus groups (the data collection, analysis and write-up of this aspect of the research followed that of the interviews).

5. All names of participants in the paper are pseudonyms.

6. See Appendix for details about the different generations of teachers in the focus group. It is also important to note that the age of the participants was estimated from the interview and other information.