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Accepted Paper:
Returning to class after lockdown: early childhood educational practices in municipal infant-toddler centres and preschools in Milan and Reggio Emilia (Italy)
Manuela Tassan
(University of Milano-Bicocca)
Based on infant-toddler centres and preschools teachers’ narratives, this paper offers a reflection on the cultural impact of Covid-19 pandemic on educational practices in municipal early childhood services in Milan and Reggio Emilia (Italy).
Paper long abstract:
This paper proposes some reflections emerged from the research I am conducting with teachers of municipal infant-toddler centres (0-3 years) and preschools (3-6 years) in Milan and Reggio Emilia (Italy). The aim is to analyse how usual educational practices have changed during the health emergency and how children reacted to these changes. I mainly focus on the return to class in September 2020, following the long lockdown that, in Italy, forcibly interrupted attendance in March of the same year. In this paper I intend to show how the rituals that organise the daily routine of an educational service, made up of moments dedicated to play, personal care, food consumption, and rest, have been modified due to the health emergency. This means analysing times, spaces, and objects that characterize the identity of a early childhood education service. Particular attention will be paid to the way the body is used in interpersonal relationships between children and teachers, and among children themselves. I will demonstrate as the teachers’ "narrated practices" offer a privileged point of view for understanding this historical moment of crisis, but also of deep educational experimentation.