Design and research: design is research. A design approach-based experience in the Province of Reggio Emilia

The aim of the book is developing an in-depth reflection on the theme of educational design. The starting point is from the re-definition of the theoretical-cultural frameworks and practices adopted in some infant-toddler centres and preschools of the Reggio Emilia province. If we understand design as a research approach, as a process in which observation, documentation, evaluation and recast intertwine constantly, design becomes a strategy that promotes the co-construction of the knowledge of adults and children together.
The continuous circularity between moments of action and reflection makes it possible to specify processes and tools that the volume presents and discusses within an idea of service understood as a system of complex and multiform relations. To construct a design outlook, educators and teachers must be able to assume a different posture, one that brings their profession closer to that of a researcher who is curious and capable - together with colleagues and the pedagogical coordinator -of elaborating new cognitive itineraries, acquiring awareness and skills that generate common and shared forms of learning.
The book provides those who already work in pre-school contexts with an opportunity to reinterpret their experience and supplies educators, teachers and pedagogues in training with useful strategies for the development of their professional identity.