Week One. November 4-8, 2019.
Language Barrier?
Both the English and Italian languages are spoken in our day. Our course link/ person is Lorenzo Manera- a warm, friendly and calm young man and he is a skilled translator when we require it. The majority of my new colleagues are bi- lingual and a couple of the very competent ones jump in and translate for people like me without being asked when ever it is required. As you can imagine, this is hugely appreciated. The group has been discussing how we are going to up skill in our language competency and the options discussed so far are: formal ones run by the University of Modena OR teaching each other (which is already happening). On Friday morning we visited the local re- cycling centre where I found the most marvellous book, published in 1958, The ‘Charles M. Schulz- Charlie Brown Dictionary of translation from Italian to English’… including how to pronounce words and phrases! My Russian & Italian colleagues, Sofya and Giampiera (in the photo alongside this text) and I were all excited to find it and the kind people at the Remida re-cycling centre are letting us scan it (it’s not for sale…too precious). Even after two weeks my understanding of Italian has improved a lot, I feel like I can recognise about 1/6 of the words in a presentation/discussion now (still a long way to go, but progress at least).
Key Messages for our group on the first day…
We are a ‘research COMMUNITY’ and we have been allocated a collaborative office an in the Reggio Foundation, with a photocopier and lovely big desks.
On Monday afternoon we met the large group of Professors who are on the board of Reggio Childhood Studies. We each introduced ourselves, they sharing their area of expertise and we, the students sharing our PhD topic proposals. Over the coming weeks we have the opportunity to connect with the tutor we think is best matched with our work.
For the next few weeks part of our programme is to learn about the Reggio approach in depth.
There will be regular seminars with visiting experts for us to attend, these are booked up till June so far; there is funding to get experts whom we think would be good for the group here to speak, if we wish.
Reading
During the next couple of months one of our tasks is to find 4-5 of the most current and best pieces of research in the world on our topic.
We also have a very comprehensive book list to read. As a group we have decided to get into small groups, who read the same book, over the next week, then on Thursday we will share what we’ve learned with the wider group. My group is reading ‘The APP Generation’, by Howard Gardner and Katie Davis.
We are able to have free access to any Uni courses at Unimore (in Reggio)- Professor Melloni recommended some good ones.
So… the Goals of the course are:
To write a high quality piece of research, to be published internationally, which didn’t exist before.
To find the best 4-5 pieces of current research based on our topic between now and January.
This is an ‘Industrial PhD’ meaning it is tailored towards our field of future work interest.
Luckily because we all work in the same room so we talk LOTS about what we are finding, thinking and wondering! Fortunately there is a wonderful sense of fun and humour amongst the group, even when there is a language barrier- it never ceases to amaze me how humour connects people so easily.
Collaborative office space
Lovely colleagues on a trip to Modena to get our ID cards.
Other
There is a large range of people in my group and the topics they plan to work on for their PhD are equally as wide ranging. There are some very interesting topics that people want to study, for example the lovely young Russian woman is looking at how robotics can help autism. She has invited me to go to Milan to the University there, where she is already under way with this work. Another young man has worked in famous art galleries, like the Guggenheim Museum in New York and he is wanting to study how to make visual language more important in people's (including children's) lives. Another colleague works in prison and she wants to make prison visits for children more joyful (so it's not a punishment for them too), and more about building strong parent/child relationships. It is all very interesting!
