Progressive Education and Learning Environment in Kindergarten: A Way to Cultivate Equity and Inclusion?

• In Event: A Global Perspective on Early Childhood Education

Abstract

The aim of our paper is to present a current action-research project involving about 30 Kindergartens in Italy, Germany and Austria, in order to implement, through a participating process, a rethinking of the learning environment organization, both internal and external, and of related ways of act in it by the children.
The action research is organized in four principal steps: planning, action, observation and reflection (Lewin, 1946) and it will build a circular plan that connects action and reflection during the whole process. It will involve about 100 teachers, who will be guided to rethink their educational activities according to these three categories: learning environment, autonomous work, inclusive ecosystem (Fröbel, 1826; Montessori, 1970; Malaguzzi, 1995; CAST, 2011).

Authors

• Barbara Caprara, Free University - Bozen-Bolzano

• Vanessa Macchia, Free University - Bozen-Bolzano