South Australia’s Thinker-in-Residence Professor Carla Rinaldi, internationally respected for her expertise on early childhood development based around the Reggio Emilia approach visited Mount Gambier in April 2013.

Professor Rinaldi worked with a number of local people from the community and practitioners in the early childhood sector, hearing presentations from parents, children, schools, kindergartens and City of Mount Gambier Elected Members explaining 'this is what a child is in the City of Mount Gambier'. 

Professor Rinaldi promoted the concept of early childhood spaces being places of and for learning for children, teachers, parents and the community. As she stated in her “Vision for South Australia’ ……

“The competent child is amazing if we are able to make them visible. The competent child, the competent teacher and the competent parent can and do exist in South Australia. They are waiting for our pedagogical, cultural, social and political decisions”

A workshop facilitated by Trish Tranfa explored Professor Carla Rinaldi's "Vision for South Australia" and what that means for Mount Gambier.

The following key questions were raised for consideration during this workshop:

• What's next?
• Where to from here?
• Challenges/Provocation?
• How do we promote the message?

Take a look at the discussion notes here.

The City of Mount Gambier Lifelong Learning Sub-Committee have identified that the Relational Learning philosophies of Dr George Otero dovetail powerfully with the Reggio Emilia principles, and we are most fortunate to have them supporting our work. 

Over the past two years the City of Mount Gambier have been privileged to partner with Flinders University, bringing education professionals Dr George Otero (Director of the Centre for Relational Learning in Sante Fe, New Mexico) and Professor John Halsey (the Sidney Myer Chair of Rural Education and Communities in the School of Education at Flinders University) to Mount Gambier; developing a commitment to the relational learning process in partnership with our community. 

Dr Otero's fundamental philosophy is simple: 

"We believe that our relationships hold the keys to educational success"

2012 saw a Sidney Myer Rural Lecture Series 'Rural Communities...Education for the 21st Century' hosted in Mount Gambier (watch it here). This lecture was an incredible success and received an overwhelming response from participants wanting to be involved in further workshops to challenge the traditional education paradigm and develop a local whole of community, relationship based approach to educationand learning; raising the question where to from here?

A two-day workshop with Dr Otero and Professor Halsey titled 'Social Capital and Community-based Education & Learning: From Agency to Relationship-based Services' was held in Mount Gambier in 2013. 

The aim of the workshop was to reconnect with the content and input from the Sidney Myer Rural Lecture Series 'Rural Communities...Education for the 21st Century' lecture; engaging participants in the process of moving toward relational, whole of community based ways of providing education, human services and support.

Topics covered included:

• Social capital and community-based education and learning: Rural contextual factors specific to Mount Gambier,
• Exploring partnerships: Identifying opportunities to make them work and how,
• From agency to relationship-based services: Exploring being and working in a relationship-based way, and
• Progressing being and working in a relationship-based way: Identifying areas of change and what needs to be done.

The strong attendance at these sessions emphasised that relational, whole of community based ways of providing education, human and support services will form the pillars of our approach to developing a sustainable community learning model, specifically designed to meet the ongoing needs of our community - with our community.

Please visit the 'Library' for further information and extensive documentation relating to Dr Otero's philosophy.