Fondazione Reggio Children and The LEGO foundation promote from 1st to 3rd of august in São Paulo, Brazil the project P.E.R.-Play Explore Research Brazil

From Reggio Emilia to São Paulo, three days of meetings with educators, teachers, children and families and more than 40 free in-person and online workshops in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and English on the relationship between play, learning and community practices

Dialogues with Lego Awardees Carla Rinaldi and Maria Adelaida Lòpez led by Paulo Fochi (Unisinos) and Daniela Caldeirinha (The Lemann Foundation)

Partners include Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Municipality and State Government of São Paulo, Red Solare Brasil, aeioTU, The Lemann Foundation, Escolas Criativas, The Brazilian Creative Learning Network, The Gordinho Foundation and Raiz y Fronda

An international meeting on play and learning with the educational world of Latin America will be held in São Paulo, Brazil, August 1-3, 2024, on the initiative of the Fondazione Reggio Children-Centro Internazionale Loris Malaguzzi with the Project P.E.R. Play Explore Research, supported by The LEGO Foundation.

The P.E.R. Project was launched last November in Italy, from Reggio Emilia, city of a world-renowned early childhood education experience. The Project promotes the relationship between the right to play and the right to learn for all people, together with the right to a quality education. The program in São Paulo is of three days under the title “Play and learning: community educational practices”. With the event in Brazil, the second of seven international meetings on the five continents, play and learning are in dialogue with the community educational practices, which are fundamental for building a cohesive and inclusive society, resilience and collective well-being through participatory education and engagement.

From 1st to 3rd of August, there will be international conferences, dialogues and discussions between participants and more than 40 workshops, for free, subject to registration. Two days of in-person and online events, in four languages, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and English, while on the third and final day there will be an event dedicated to children, parents and families.

Carla Rinaldi, president of Fondazione Reggio Children, says: “It is a great joy to meet the educational world of Brazil and Latin America, to which we are bound by so many common paths. Now with the P.E.R. project, the result of the partnership between Fondazione Reggio Children and The LEGO Foundation, we want to cross together the relationship between play and learning, combining it with contemporary challenges, including digital, sustainability and the educational emergencies that question all our societies. It will be a conference-action on community educational practices to build a cohesive and inclusive society and to enhance the experiences of schools and educational centers that promote the right to play in their daily actions together with lifelong education".

The partners of the Brazilian event promoted by Fondazione Reggio Children with The LEGO Foundation are Italian and Brazilian Institutions and Educational Organizations in Latin America: the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, with the General Consulate in São Paulo and the System of Italian Training in the World, the São Paulo State Government, the Municipality of São Paulo, the CPS-Paula Souza Center, the CEU-Unified Educational Center Butantã,  Organizations such as Red Solare Brasil, aeioTU, The Lemann Foundation, Escolas Criativas, RBAC - The Brazilian Creative Learning Network, The Cintra Gordinho Foundation and Raiz y Fronda.

THE PROGRAM

The first two days are addressed to the audience of educators, teachers, policy makers and the educational world. On Thursday, August 1st, 2024, at the Paula Souza Center in Santa Ifigênia, São Paulo, at 9.00 am in plenary and online, the meeting begins with the greetings of the Institutions: Laura Laganà, Rector Superintendent, as representative of the Paula Souza Centre and Fernando Padula, Secretary for Education of the Municipality of São Paulo, as CEUs representative. Then, for the Italian Ministry, Livia Satullo, Deputy Consul at the General Consulate of Italy in São Paulo and Monica Faggionato, School Headmistress, Italian Training System for the Consular Circumscriptions of São Paulo, Curitiba and Porto Alegre. The conference will be opened by Sidsel Marie Kristensen, CEO of The LEGO Foundation and Cristian Fabbi, General Manager of Fondazione Reggio Children.

At 9.30 am, in plenary session, the first of two dialogue meetings designed to delve deeper into the themes of P.E.R Brazil  on a pedagogical and cultural level. With Thoughts towards a pedagogy of the future: Carla Rinaldi, pedagogist, President of Fondazione Reggio Children, Desu-University of Modena and Reggio Emilia lecturer, 2015 Lego Prize, will be interviewed by Paulo Fochi, Professor of Pedagogy at Unisinos University in Brazil, founder and coordinator of OBECI, Observatory of Children's Culture, member of the scientific committee of “Bambini” magazine.

It continues at 10.30 am with the presentation of P.E.R.'s network of educational partners in São Paulo. This will be followed by numerous workshops in two parallel sessions: from 11.30 am to 1.15 pm, in-person and online, only in-person from 2.30 to 4.30 pm. They will focus on different educational practices for learning through play: from nature and regeneration to apps and creative digital platforms, such as OctoStudio and Scratch from MIT-Lifelong Kindergarten, to public spaces and learning spaces, museum experiences, educational policies. From 4.30 to 6.30 pm, Group discussions, a time to share experiences, reflections and ideas, dialogues to promote community-based educational practices. Closing with a musical performance.

On Friday, 2nd August 2024, same location, at 9 am, a plenary session will address the topic How we shape education is how we shape the world, with Maria Adelaida López, artist and early childhood educator, Executive Director of aeioTU, Lego Prize 2022, in dialogue with Daniela Caldeirinha, Vice President of the Lemann Foundation, Education Area. From 10.30 to 11.45 am, in-person and online workshops to be followed by the final feedback of the workshops in plenary. Conclusions by Carla Rinaldi. 

On Saturday morning, 3rd August 2024, the two-day community will move to the CEU Butantã, São Paolo, where activities and explorations dedicated to children, parents and families will be held from 10 am to 12 pm. A time also to say goodbye, celebrate and set up new appointments for P.E.R. project in the future.

*times are in São Paulo time zone (UTC -3)

P.E.R. PROJECT PROMOTERS AND PARTNERS

The PER Play Explore Research project aims to dialogue with educational systems around the world, with the Sustainable Development Goal n.4 of the 2030 Agenda “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. A world's tour is therefore underway  to raise awareness on the importance of the relationship between play and educational practices among teachers, educators and caregivers and to contribute to the dissemination of the benefits of this approach through the publication of doctoral research and the experimentation of play-educational activities dedicated to teachers, children and their families.

PROMOTERS

Fondazione Reggio Children - Centro Internazionale Loris Malaguzzi (FRC) was established in 2011, on the initiative of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, starting from the experience of the city's infant-toddler centers and preschools, as a participatory foundation. Its mission is the promotion and protection of communities and children's rights, through research and solidarity projects for a quality education in Italy and worldwide in dialogue with local, national and international partners.  In 2023, FRC and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation signed a Declaration of Intent that aims to promote collaboration on the promotion of Italian language and culture and the right to education. P.E.R. also involves the Ex-Cafarri Centre in Reggio Emilia with the projects Remida-The Creative Recycling Center,  scintillae-play and learning in the digital age and the PhD Reggio Childhood Studies of Unimore.

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