Julie Biddle Common Thread Image

Dr. Julie Biddle Publishes Article

Antioch University New England Education Department faculty Dr. Julie Biddle had an article published in Innovations in Early Education: The International Reggio Emilia Exchange, the Quarterly Periodical of the North American Reggio Emilia Alliance. Biddle crafted a media review of Participation is an Invitation: Citizen, Citizenship, Participation, a video resulting from a collaborative project between Fotografia Europea, an international photography festival, and the schools in Reggio Emilia. The collaboration started in 2008 and is an opportunity for the work of the children from the infant-toddler centers to middle schools to be exhibited annually in the city.

In her overall summary, Dr. Biddle writes: “The video is a compilation of voices and images as children explored the city, eavesdropped on conversations, and took photos. The result is a narration of what it means to these children to participate, to exercise the right of citizenship, to feel welcomed in the community, to belong. These are timely topics. What does it mean to feel welcomed, to be a citizen and exercise one’s citizenship in today’s world where groups are still considered “other” and segregated and disenfranchised? Listening to the wisdom of children can be instructive and the video offers the viewer this opportunity.”

Dr. Biddle developed and teaches in the graduate certificate program in the Reggio Emilia Approach.  She traveled to Reggio Emilia with various study groups in 2004, 2010, 2015, and 2019. She was a founding member of the Ohio Voices for Learning: A Reggio Inspired Forum (OVL) and has served in many leadership capacities in the organization. She was the project director responsible for bringing the Wonder of Learning Exhibit to Ohio in 2011. Julie has been the facilitator of the Greater Dayton Reggio Study Group since 2004.

“Julie’s active engagement in the international Reggio Emilia community helps to bring fantastic resources to our students at Antioch who are learning the Reggio method for early childhood education,” said Dr. Susan Leon Dreyer, Chair of the Antioch University New England Education Department.

Read the full article here.