The Reggio Approach is a complex system of thought and practice with many dynamic entry points that interact; it is not a method, program or curriculum.
Key Principles of the Educational Project of Reggio Emilia, Italy

In this issue, we will begin to unpack the image of the child, introduced by Loris Malaguzzi and others who elaborate on this foundational idea.

There are hundreds of different images of the child. Each one of you has inside yourself an image of the child that directs you as you begin to relate to a child. This theory within you pushes you to behave in certain ways; it orients you as you talk to the child, listen to the child, observe the child. It is very difficult for you to act contrary to this internal image. For example, if your image is that boys and girls are very different from one another, you will behave differently in your interactions with each of them (Malaguzzi, 1994). 

The educational project of Reggio Emilia offers an image of a child, each child and all children, as curious, competent learners who desire to be in relationship with others and the world. In this way, the Reggio Emilia Approach constructs a ‘rich’ child, with enormous unknown potential. This ‘rich’ child calls for comparably ‘rich’ parents and teachers, similarly disposed.

When we engage in dialogue with Reggio Emilia, we are asked to become aware of and think critically about the image of the child that we hold. This image resides mostly outside of our awareness and is challenging to make visible, even to ourselves. It is, however, revealed through action: the words we use; the nature of our expectations and how we convey them; how we organize time, space and materials; and how we prepare and use documentation.

The idea of the child that Malaguzzi introduced, and which the Reggio Emilia project has elaborated over decades, contests customary understandings. These children are not innocent, naive or cute. Nor are they passive, ‘at risk’ or constrained by standards. 

The child is called the ‘rich’ child. But not ‘rich’ materially. Rather ‘rich’ in potential, strong, powerful, competent and, most of all, connected to adults and other children …The ‘rich’ child is an active learner, seeking the meaning of the world from birth, a co-creator of knowledge, identity, culture, and values. (Moss, 2010).

The children that Malaguzzi described discuss and represent their thinking about identity, love, war, peace and liberty as well as light, shadow and color. We come to know these strong children through educators’ collaborative work of pedagogical documentation. “This is a gifted child, for whom we need a gifted teacher.” 

One of the focal points of the Reggio Emilia philosophy… is the image of a child who, right from the moment of birth, is so engaged in developing a relationship with the world and intent on experiencing the world that he develops a complex system of abilities, learning strategies and ways of organizing relationships. This is:

A child who is fully able to create personal maps for his own social, cognitive, affective and symbolic orientation.

A competent, active, critical child;  a child who is therefore ‘challenging’, because he produces change and dynamic movement in the systems in which he is involved, including the family, the society and the school.  A producer of culture, values and rights, competent in living and learning.

A child who is able to assemble and disassemble possible realities, to construct metaphors and creative paradoxes, to construct his own symbols and codes while learning to decode the established symbols and codes.

A child who, very early on, is able to attribute meanings to events and who attempts to share meanings and stories of meaning. (Loris Malaguzzi, as revisited by Rinaldi, 2006).

“...and most of all connected to adults and other children,” (Malaguzzi, 1993).

References
Malaguzzi, L. (1994). Your image of the child: Where teaching begins. Exchange, 3, 52–56. Retrieved from http://www.reggioalliance.org/downloads/malaguzzi:ccie:1994.pdf

Barsotti, C. (2004, March). Walking on Threads of Silk: Interview with Loris Malaguzzi. Children in Europe, (Issue 6), 10 - 15.

Moss, P. (2004). Dedicated to Loris Malaguzzi: The town of Reggio and its schools. Retrieved from https://www.sightlines-initiative.com/images/Library/reggio/townofrepmoss.pdf

Rinaldi, C. 2006. In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia: Listening, Researching and Learning. New York: Routledge