Introducing special educational principles of Reggio Emilia concept in Slovene curriculum for preschool education

"Professional training of educational staff for implementing special educational principles of Reggio Emilia concept in the field of pre-school education in the years 2008-2013" is the title of the project, which Faculty of education of University of Ljubljana obtained and is funded by the European Social Fund and Ministry of Education and Sports. The project is based on the analysis, development and integration of individual elements of the Reggio Emilia concept in the kindergartens in the Slovenian environment. Through the project we would like to include in kindergartens those elements of Reggio Emilia concept, which we can recognize as an upgrade or elevation of the National curriculum for preschool education [1]. In this text authors: (1) represent the basic positions or certain elements of Reggio Emilia concept in Slovenian kindergartens and focus mainly on items such as: cooperation between kindergarten and the environment in which it operates, kindergarten, which co-designs the culture of the local environment and the children, who learn about tolerant and respectful attitude towards others and different and (2) present the results of the research (N = 331 and N=42 ) among the preschool teachers and professionals working in local community, who are responsible for the area of preschool education, on the discussed topic. The research results show that just over 60% of preschool teachers have already heard of the Reggio Emilia educational concept however only one third of them know special elements of this concept and only 5.2% of them know the Reggio Emilia concept as a whole. Results for local community show that more than 80% of professionals working in local community had never heard of the concept of Reggio Emilia preschool education or are very poorly known. The results also show that the enforcement of Reggio Emilia special educational principles in the Slovenian area will not be possible without a comprehensive approach that would include self-evaluation, research and partnership cooperation