Johannesburg pronta ad ospitare la terza conferenza internazionale del Progetto P.E.R.

After the first event in Reggio Emilia and the stop in São Paulo in Brazil, it’s time for Johannesburg for the world tour of the PER Play Explore Research project launched by Fondazione Reggio Children-Centro Loris Malaguzzi ETS with the LEGO Foundation. 

A project to promote and value educational research on play and learning, which has as its beneficiary the children and that wants for this to dialogue with the experiences of many countries of the world through the meeting with educators, parents and teachers, public administrators.

The journey to meet different educational realities of the African continent has already begun, with the departure from Reggio Emilia of the delegation led by the director of Fondazione Reggio Children, Cristian Fabbi. The culmination will be on 8, 9 and 10 October when a day of comparisons and workshops will be held in Johannesburg.

"The game in parenting and childcare" is the title of this new appointment to "share experiences, learning and practices on early childhood education and well-being through play".

After the first two days of activities in schools and educational centres, the third international conference of PER, Play Explore Research will take place on Thursday 10 October at the CedarWoods of Sandton auditorium in Johannesburg. The program was built by Fondazione Reggio Children with the LEGO Foundation in collaboration with Consulate General of Italy in Johannesburg - Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Province of Gauteng, Fondazione E35, AREA - Africa Reggio Emilia Alliance, Hope Worldwide South Africa, Flourish - a World Great Programme, Mimosa School, together with Catholic University of Mozambique, National Network for the Development of Early Childhood in Mozambique and City of Pemba, Ministry for Education and Training of Eswatini, Ministry of Education of Cameroon.

All representatives of the participating organizations will bring greetings at the opening of the conference that will be at 9.30, starting from the Consul General of Italy in Johannesburg Emanuela Curnis and the video greeting by Carla Rinaldi, president of Reggio Children’s Foundation. The meeting, which can be followed online, continues until 11.30 with the presentation of the P.E.R. Play Explore Research South Africa project and the participants who contributed to these days.

From 11.30 to 13.00, workshops and seminars will be held offline in six parallel sessions, entitled "Sharing success stories, challenges and innovations, ways of learning through play".  Fondazione Reggio Children proposes three workshops: "Storytelling with materials: tactile messages for future generations" together with Remida, the Creative Recycling Center, then the workshop "The sensitive body: how to explore self-expression through movement" and  "Building the pillars of a quality education policy". The three seminars are: "Increasing ECD parenting initiatives in South Africa: Lessons from caregiver learning" with the Through Play Program of Hope World Wide South Africa; "An "absolute possibility", Reggio Emilia inspiration a Bekezela" by AREA, Mimosa School - Bekezela Crèche; "School is nice! Paths of participation, tutoring, exchange and training for the quality of education in Mozambique" by Fondazione E35, City of Pemba, National Network for Early Childhood Development of Mozambique and Catholic University of Mozambique.

In the afternoon from 14.15 until 16.00 they resume the work, which can be followed online, under the title "Exploring Different Early Childhood Education Experiences. Plenary on sharing educational experiences from different contexts" and conclusions about PER as a research project.

 

PER: Educational research on play and learning

Research on the relationship between play and learning is at the heart of the PER project. The project aims to improve awareness of playful educational practices of teachers, educators and caregivers at international level, contribute to the dissemination of doctoral research on the subject and encourage experimentation with recreational activitieseducationally dedicated to teachers, children and their families. PER follows the field development of the experiences that will be launched in the world, with the support of The LEGO Foundation along with some of the most significant projects of the Reggio Children Foundation. Among them the PhD in Reggio Childhood Studies with the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. In addition, the scintillae-play and learning in the digital age project on gaming and learning in the digital age and the Remida-Centro di Riciclaggio Creativo, with Istituto Scuole e Nidi and Iren, a project on education and sustainability. Their research is based in a symbolic and regenerated place of Reggio Emilia, the former Caffarri. As a value reference PER is inspired by the paper on quality education in response to the educational emergency "Quality education, a global challenge" of Fondazione Reggio Children.

The role of Reggio Emilia in South and Southern Africa

With the PER project conference and the presence of the Reggio Children Foundation, the historic collaboration between Reggio Emilia and Southern Africa is strengthened.

In particular, the event takes place in a country, South Africa, with which the City of Reggio Emilia has historical relations of solidarity and friendship since the 70’s. Reggio Emilia was in fact the first city to stipulate, in 1977, a Pact of solidarity with the African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela. Starting from that pact signed by Oliver Tambo, Reggio Emilia has built over the years an extraordinary friendship and cooperation, initially linked to the fight against apartheid, but that over time has transformed into a territorial partnership that has seen, in particular in the last 12 years, the territory reggiano strengthen collaboration with the Province of Gauteng and several departments including education, sport and culture and economic development,  and other actors such as the Hip Alliance, opening various projects and initiatives in educational, cultural, sports, economic, involving, in addition to the Municipality, many realities such as Fondazione E35, Istoreco, Reggio Children, Fondazione per lo Sport, Unimore, Unindustria, Legacoop Emilia West.

In this context, the presence of representatives and educators coming from other neighbouring African countries is important. In particular, the presence of the City of Pemba, twinned with Reggio Emilia since 1975: a relationship, that with Mozambique, from which the relationship with South Africa was also generated, which still today sees the development of particularly relevant and strategic collaborations and projects. In particular, in the educational field, the Municipality of Reggio Emilia promotes since 2020 the project MaisPemba, funded by the European Commission and coordinated locally by the E35 Foundation.

Registration for the conference:

To attend the conference in person or online, click here.

Info:

For information participate@frchildren.org

The press release is as follows: