Changing Perspectives in Early Childhood Education: Recasting the Reggio Emilia Approach

This national study used descriptive quantitative methods to examine and describe the perceptions and concerns of individuals involved in the process of change through the recasting and the reconceptualization of early childhood education through the Reggio Emilia Approach. The study's participants were faculty, laboratory school staff and graduate students from selected university early childhood teacher education programs. The study used the Stages of Concern Questionnaire developed by Hall and associates at the University of Texas (1974) to examine individual concerns about the adoption of an educational innovation, and a Description of Program Questionnaire to examine specific program variables. To gain a deeper perspective on the data, an individual from each university program was also interviewed by telephone. Previous research on the reconceptualization of early childhood education has concluded that collaboration is an essential tenet in organization growth (Fu, Stremmel, & Hill, 2002). The present study yielded a similar portrait in that every university program reported concerns about collaboration, while also maintaining that collaborative efforts were their number one success. The results are discussed in reference to the National Research Council on Teaching and Learning's recommendations for the future of early childhood education. (Contains 4 figures.)