Stories of Teachers and Children from North America
Edited by Lella Gandini, Susan Etheredge, and Lynn Hill
Lella Gandini, Ed.D., a consultant in early childhood education and Lesley University Visiting Scholar in 2007–2009, taught previously at Smith College and at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is Reggio Children
United States Liaison for the Dissemination of the Reggio Emilia Approach. She serves as Associate Editor of Innovations in Early Education: The International Reggio Exchange. Lecturer and author of many articles and book chapters
about the Reggio Emilia approach, she is co-editor and coauthor of The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio
Emilia Approach to Early Childhood Education; Beautiful Stuff: Learning with Found Materials; Bambini: The Italian Approach to Infant/Toddler Care; In the Spirit of the Studio: Learning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia; Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia: Stories of Children and Teachers from North America. With George Forman, she produced
videos presenting and examining projects in the schools of Reggio Emilia, including An Amusement Park for Birds.
She has also published research on parenting, children’s fears, the use and text of traditional nursery rhymes in Italy,
and comparative rituals at bedtime in Tuscany and New England. Lella Gandini is the author of several books in
Italian for children, as well as books about parenting and early education in Italy. She presented at the opening of
many of the 43 venues of the tour in the United States of the previous versions of the Hundred Languages of Children Exhibit, also with Amelia Gambetti (1987–1999 and
2000–2007).
Susan Etheredge, Ed.D., is Associate Professor of Education and Child Study and Director of First-Year Seminars at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Susan was also a K–3 classroom teacher for many
years. Her current research and publications address inquiry-based teaching and learning in the early childhood and
elementary classroom, with a particular focus on science education in the early years. She is co-author of Introducing Students to Scientific Inquiry: How Do We Know What We Know? and co-editor (with Lella Gandini and Lynn
Hill) of Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia: Stories of Teachers and Children from North America. Susan works
with teachers in public and independent schools in areas related to professional development and teacher education, served as Interim Associate Dean of the Faculty at Smith, is a past president of the New England Educational
Research Organization, and co-directs the Coral Reef Ed-Ventures Program for children in San Pedro, Belize. During 2007–2008 academic years, she spent a sabbatical year observing and studying the innovative early childhood
schools in Pistoia, Italy.
Lynn Hill, Ph.D., has served as a social worker, teacher, director of curriculum, atelierista, founding administrator of Rainbow Riders Childcare Center in Blacksburg,
Virginia, and has taught child development courses at Virginia Tech. Most recently, she has been an educational consultant to early childhood programs with a particular
emphasis on teacher development, inquiry-based teaching and learning, and the role of the atelier. Her research has focused on the Reggio Emilia approach to education
in early childhood and middle schools. She is co-author and co-editor of Teaching and Learning: Collaborative Exploration of the Reggio Emilia Approach; Teaching as
Inquiry: Re-thinking Curriculum in Early Childhood Education; and In the Spirit of the Studio: Learning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia.
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