Who am I? Who are we together?

As preparations for the 2022 school year began, the year 1 teachers came together to consider how we could best support the children as they transitioned into their new learning environment. We recognised the importance of social connection and ensuring that every child and adult could develop a sense of belonging within our newly formed neighbourhood group. 

As our teaching team engaged in dialogue about our new group of children and our desires for the type of learning context we wanted to create we kept coming back to the concept of identity. Initial questions began to emerge:

If we supported children to know and understand more about themselves and their own identity how might this impact their learning?

Could learning about identity help to unify us as a group and a community, how might we connect this learning to greater society?

How are our identities shaped, what is the impact of those around us?

Identity is how you feel about yourself, only you decide what it is. – Charlie

With a strong desire to research these ideas we considered our learning spaces in line with the Reggio Emilia perspective of the ‘environment as the third teacher’. The recognition of how the physical space can hold immense power in shaping learning. We thought about the need for this group of children to have some familiarity in this new environment along with opportunities to reconnect with one another and to establish relationships with new members of the group. We also considered our potential research pathway and how we might provoke children to begin considering the concept of identity. With this in mind, thoughtful provocations were constructed within the spaces and the teachers began to listen, document and question.

You might learn more about your identity from your friends and family. The people you are with can teach you about your identity. – Jaya