Language: English

ISSN: 1054-0040

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/0034408800750308

ISSN: 1547-3201, 0034-4087

Language: English

ISSN: 1071-6246

Abstract/Notes: This article is a special blend of research, theory, and practice, with clear insight into the origins of Cosmic Education and cosmic task, while recalling memories of student explorations in botany, in particular, episodes from Mr. Leonard's teaching. Mr. Leonard speaks of a storytelling curriculum that eloquently puts perspective into dimensions of Cosmic Education as philosophy, human unity, heroes of history, invention, gratitude, connections with nature, and much more. [Reprinted from "The NAMTA Journal" 31,2 (2006, Spring): 119-136. This talk was presented at the NAMTA conference titled "Embracing the Challenge: Refining Montessori Practice," Baltimore, MD, November 10-13, 2005.]

Language: English

ISSN: 1522-9734

Abstract/Notes: A new database will house information about Montessori education, a popular method of schooling in early-childhood education.

Language: English

ISSN: 0277-4232, 1944-8333

Language: English

Published: Minneapolis, Minnesota: Jola Publications, 2000

ISBN: 1-878373-27-7

Language: English

Published: Lawrence, Kansas, 1930

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: While many BIPOC Montessori educators engage in anti-racist and culturally responsive teaching, Montessori education remains predominantly race-evasive. As a philosophy, it is rooted in colorblind perspectives in its focus on "all children" and lack of explicit centering of BIPOC students’ experiences. Teaching must account for race and racial lived realities in order to better support BIPOC students’ ways of knowing in culturally relevant and sustaining ways. This study seeks to center the voices of BIPOC Montessori educators and disrupt the pattern of Montessori research conducted without a critical racial lens. Framed by Critical Race Theory, this study focuses on the strengths, assets, and anti-racist teaching practices that one BIPOC educator brings to her classroom. I use critical ethnographic methods to better understand how a BIPOC Montessori teacher at a public charter Montessori school interprets and enacts the Montessori method to support BIPOC students. I consider how her racial identity informs her practices, and the structural barriers she faces at her school when enacting anti-racist and strength-based approaches. The guiding research questions of this study are: How does a Black Montessori teacher interpret the Montessori philosophy to more relevantly support her BIPOC students? How does she practice the Montessori method through culturally relevant and sustaining practices? What are the structural barriers that continue to challenge her as a Black educator doing her work? My analysis suggests that the teacher maintains her classroom space as a tangible and intangible cultural space that reflects and maintains her students' identities; that her own identity as a Black woman deeply contribute to the school's work around anti-racism and culturally responsive pedagogy; and that there are external barriers that both the teacher and the school face, that prevent them both from fully achieving culturally responsive teaching practices. At the core of the study, I seek to understand the possibilities and challenges of Montessori education from the perspective of BIPOC Montessori educators, and how we could learn from them to better support BIPOC students. I hope to begin a path toward more counter-stories in the Montessori community to specifically support BIPOC Montessori educators and understand the structural barriers they face to anti-racist teaching in Montessori programs in the United States.

Language: English

Published: College Park, Maryland, 2023

Language: English

ISSN: 1071-6246