Conversations Episode 3: Snippet - Environments, Spaces and Relations with Dr Jane Merewether.

Speaker 0 00:00:08 Conversations podcast series for RVIA members, hosted by Kirsty, Littlejohn, Brin, and Cario new committee members, an opportunity for rich thinking and dialogue as a context of continuous interaction between you and your colleagues. Speaker 2 00:00:26 We are absolutely delighted to welcome dr. Jane Merryweather from Western Australia to our third podcast today to talk about environment spaces and relations. Speaker 0 00:00:39 What would be the characteristics of the educational environments in Reggio Emilia? Speaker 3 00:00:45 So sometime ago, uh, a research project constructed by a Julio champion McKelly Xeni, um, identified 12 board characteristics evident in their Jo, um, environments. And these characteristics were separately identified to illustrate the way each, each characteristic works within the whole, but in practice they're interdependent and support one another. And although this work was done back in the late 1990s, I think the, the characteristics identified by champions any remain really helpful in regard to understanding the broad concept of the environment as it's understood in, in Rancho. So the first of the 10 broad characteristics is overall softness, um, champions, any used the metaphor of overall softness to describe the features. One of the key features that's evident in the schools in red Joe, and it draws it, which it draws attention to the tangible sense of, um, sereneness, I'm an, I need ability and just overall level of livability that is evident in those scores. Speaker 3 00:02:12 Anyone that's been there will will know what I'm talking about when I say that, um, it's not necessarily homeless, but there is a sense of, um, livability in all of the schools. Um, so are open and flexible spaces and they provided a diverse and stimulating environment that enables the possibility of being part of a group, but also to work autonomously and the spaces invite listening and exchange and attention to others. The second of champions in his characteristics is relation and it refers to the way schools in Reggio pay close attention to the ways that the environment creates connections, not only between people, but also between spaces, ideas and things.