Reggio Children Foundation, PER Play Explore Research project in Brazil

An international meeting on play and learning with the educational world of Latin America will be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 1 to 3 August 2024 at the initiative of the Reggio Children Foundation - Loris Malaguzzi Centre with the PER Play Explore Research Project, financed and shared by The LEGO Foundation.

The PER project was launched last November in Italy, from Reggio Emilia, home of a world-renowned early childhood education experience. The Project promotes the relationship between the right to play and the right to learning for all, together with the right to quality education. The programme in São Paulo spans three days under the title 'Play and Learning: Community Education Practices'. With the stop in Brazil, the second of seven international meetings on five continents, play and learning are married with community education practices, fundamental for building a cohesive and inclusive society, resilience and collective wellbeing, through participatory education and involvement.

From 1 to 3 August, there will be international conferences, dialogues and comparisons between participants and more than 40 workshops, free of charge, subject to registration. Two days of in-person and online events, in four languages, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and English, while on the third and last day there will be an event dedicated to children, parents and families. Carla Rinaldi, President of the Reggio Children Foundation, states: "We go with great joy to the meeting with the educational world of Brazil and Latin America, to which we are bound by so many common paths, so many shares. This event is the result of the partnership between the Reggio Children Foundation and The LEGO Foundation. Together with our communities, thanks to the PER project, we now want to explore the relationship between play and learning, in order to combine it with the challenges of the contemporary world, including digital, sustainability, and the educational emergencies that question all our societies. It will be a conference-action on community-based educational practices to build a cohesive and inclusive society and to valorise experiences of schools and educational centres that promote the right to play in their daily actions together with lifelong education".

The partners of the Brazilian event promoted by the Reggio Children Foundation with The LEGO Foundation are Italian and Brazilian institutions and educational organisations in Latin America: the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, with the Consulate General of Italy in São Paulo and the System of Italian Education in the World, the São Paulo State Government, the Municipality of São Paulo, the Paula Souza Centre, the CEU-Centro Educativo Unificato Butantã organisations such as Red Solare Brasil, aeioTU, Lemann Foundation, Escolas Criativas, RBAC - Brazilian Network for Creative Learning, Cintra Gordinho Foundation and Raiz y Fronda.