Professor Carla Rinaldi

South Australia’s Thinker-in-Residence Professor Carla Rinaldi, internationally respected for her expertise on early childhood development based around the Reggio Emilia approach visited Mount Gambier in April 2013.

Professor Rinaldi worked with a number of local people from the community and practitioners in the early childhood sector, hearing presentations from parents, children, schools, kindergartens and City of Mount Gambier Elected Members explaining 'this is what a child is in the City of Mount Gambier'. 

Professor Rinaldi promoted the concept of early childhood spaces being places of and for learning for children, teachers, parents and the community. As she stated in her “Vision for South Australia’ ……

“The competent child is amazing if we are able to make them visible. The competent child, the competent teacher and the competent parent can and do exist in South Australia. They are waiting for our pedagogical, cultural, social and political decisions”

A workshop facilitated by Trish Tranfa explored Professor Carla Rinaldi's "Vision for South Australia" and what that means for Mount Gambier.

The following key questions were raised for consideration during this workshop:

• What's next?
• Where to from here?
• Challenges/Provocation?
• How do we promote the message?

Take a look at the discussion notes here.

The City of Mount Gambier Lifelong Learning Sub-Committee have identified that the Relational Learning philosophies of Dr George Otero dovetail powerfully with the Reggio Emilia principles, and we are most fortunate to have them supporting our work.