Page 85 - To know things we have to have the world inside us

How to proceed?

The engagement and enjoyment of teacher~researchers as they shared their gifts was palpable. One remarked that
coming~to~know the tree and preparing a gift for it had “helped [her] through one of the most difficult times in her

life”.

A strong sense of the rhythms within a research project was emerging and influenced both the flow of the work and

choices about ‘how to proceed’.

One rhythm was that of relationships between people. Documentation from Reggio Emilia reveals that the work
moves in different patterns, between the individual, the small group and the large group. At times there are also
larger groups. Groups are constructed with different combinations of children, parents, adults at the schools,
community and pedagogical mentors. The intention seems to be one of creating contexts for ‘confronto’,
comparison, and for sharing points of view in order to support and provoke the construction of meaning.

Another rhythm was more closely related to the research subject – in this case trees. In coming~to~know a

subject, there is movement between parts and wholes and parts of a larger whole. This rhythm reflects the
epistemological choice of understanding knowing as relationships, connections, ties between materials and ideas –
the pedagogy of relations. While noticing is focused on a part, a deeper understanding of the whole (in relation to the
part) also occurs. The part is only what it is because of the whole and the whole is only what it is because of the parts.
And because the whole is now a part of a larger whole, the rhythm of connections and relations
continues, one informing the other, offering new perspectives , building deeper and more complex meanings. Again

the intention seems to be to bring a part into ‘confronto’, into comparison, with the whole.

The movement from “one language to another and one field of experience to another” is yet another rhythm, a
strategy for the “constructing of concepts and the consolidation of understanding”. (Rinaldi 2006, 175)

These rhythms might be called strategies. However they have a different identity to that normally associated with
teaching strategies. These rhythms are not solitary but are seen and considered in relation to each other. They are not
linear. Rather, the movement contains loops, spirals, long silent between actions and ‘advances, standstills and
retreats’ (Rinaldi 2006, 131). Nor are they prescribed, one predetermined as applying in a given situation or process.

They are always ‘in relation to …’
Keeping these rhythms in mind, how might the research could move forward?

The group that came together several weeks ago has now worked in small groups (proposal 6) and individually
(proposals 7and 8) through coming~to~know and preparing a gift for a tree. The shared subject of our workshop,
‘things~objects~materials’ has been replaced by individual trees, some 50 in number. Only one person has seen, felt,
been with and built a relationship with a particular tree. To all intents and purposes, there are now 50+
teacher~researchers and 50+ trees. How can the group be re-established to be able, once again, to have a ‘shared
lived experience’ where relations are further deepened and we gain further insight into our own learning processes?

One strategy we used to orient ourselves was to identify common threads running through the introductions to the

trees. Images and words shared by the teacher~researchers made these threads visible, and drew attention to the
deep connections that had been formed.

Ninth proposal:

Lay out the prepared photos of features of trees in pleasing arrangements.

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