Colonialism and Cargo Cults in Early Childhood Education: Does Reggio Emilia Really Exist?

Abstract

The Reggio Emilia, preschools in Italy, have been called one of the best preschool education systems in the world. This is witnessed by the proliferation of people who have made a pilgrimage to Reggio to study this system and bring it to the USA. This article uses Reggio as a now familiar cultural icon in an attempt to problematize larger issues in the field of early childhood education. Beginning with a brief overview of some of recent Reggio discourse the author interprets this phenomenon using Foucault in an attempt to illustrate the extent to which “power reaches into the very grain of individuals … inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives' (1980, p. 39). Assisting with this interpretation, the popularity of Reggio is positioned against cargo cult theory and the normative, hegemonic practices of colonization.

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