“I’m so blessed to have had the opportunity to study an approach to teaching that I believe in empirically,” Betsy Allison said after returning to NWA from studying in the Reggio Emilia Approach to teaching in Italy. “The Reggio Emilia Approach to teaching is commonly seen in early childhood education; however, I believe it can be applied to upper levels of education. One facet of this approach that I strongly believe in is recognizing the teachers. Every classroom has three teachers: the teacher, the students, and the environment.” Allison said.
According to the Reggio Emilia Approach website, the approach is an educational philosophy based on the image of a child with strong potential for development and a subject with rights, who learns through the hundred languages belonging to all human beings, and grows in relations with others.
Betsy Allison traveled to Reggio Emilia, Italy, to spend time at the International Loris Malaguzzi Center. There, she and a fellow Springdale art educator, Marriah Geels from DTSOI, spent their time learning firsthand the roles of atelierista and the entire approach through professional experts in the field. “I believe that education should involve a collective, where the classroom doesn’t belong to the teacher but to the students. I would like to see education evolve into open learning where the teacher learns alongside the students." Allison said.
"Creativity and curiosity should join hands in all classrooms for all people.” Betsy believes that all students and teachers are continuous learners and that learning together grows community inside the classroom and out.
