Abstract/Notes: America’s Early Montessorians tells the history of the introduction and implementation of Montessori education in the United States, through the careers of Anne George, Margaret Naumburg, Helen Parkhurst, and Adelia Pyle who Maria Montessori trained as directresses. The chapter provides parallel biographies of George, Pyle, Parkhurst, and Naumburg before their enrollment in Montessori’s training courses. Anne Everett George (1878–1973), the first American trained as a directress, was America’s pioneer Montessori educator. Born in Missouri, George became a private school teacher and taught in Maryland, New York, and Chicago’s Latin School. Adelia McAlpin Pyle (1888–1968) the daughter of a wealthy manufacturer, James Tolman Pyle, was born in New York and educated by private tutors. She was fluent in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Helen Parkhurst (1886–1973), who was born in Wisconsin, earned her degree in education from the Wisconsin State Normal School in River Falls in 1909. Parkhurst taught in public elementary schools in Wisconsin and Washington and became the Director of Primary Training in Wisconsin’s State Normal School at Stevens Point. Margaret Naumburg (1890–1963), born in New York, received her elementary and secondary education in private schools including the Horace Mann School and the laboratory school at Columbia University’s Teachers College. She was awarded her B.A. degree in June 1912 from Barnard College and did graduate study at the London School of Economics.

Language: English

Published: Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020

ISBN: 978-3-030-54835-3

Series: Historical Studies in Education

Abstract/Notes: This chapter analyzes the personal interactions of the principal characters—George, Naumburg, Parkhurst and Pyle—and an over-powering fifth woman, Maria Montessori. The analysis of the interplay, the personal relationships, and the tensions between these principals, is integrated with the institutional history of educational organizations, schools, and events. George, Naumburg, Parkhurst, and Pyle arrived at the Montessori training courses believing their instructor, the greatest educator in the world, was truly “an educational wonder worker.” A complex multidimensional person, Montessori, determined to control what she had created, expected total loyalty, almost fealty and submission, from her trainees. Montessori’s demanding personality caused tension with her four students that affected the establishment of her method in the United States.

Language: English

Published: Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020

ISBN: 978-3-030-54835-3

Series: Historical Studies in Education

Abstract/Notes: Η παρούσα διατριβή επιχειρεί τη διερεύνηση της διαμόρφωσης της προσωπικότητας υπό το πρίσμα της αλληλεπίδρασης μεταξύ των βιολογικών και των κοινωνικών συνιστωσών της ανάπτυξης του παιδιού, όπως την πραγματεύονται οι θεωρίες του Ζαν-Ζακ Ρουσσώ, της Μαρίας Μοντεσσόρι, του Καρλ Ρότζερς και του Λεβ Βυγκότσκι. Δεδομένου ότι η προσωπικότητα αποτελεί το επίκεντρο κάθε παιδαγωγικής θεωρίας συνιστώντας το ιδεώδες στο οποίο αποσκοπεί η αγωγή, εξετάζονται οι δυνατότητες και οι περιορισμοί της αγωγής όσον αφορά τη διαμόρφωση της προσωπικότητας των παιδιών μέσω της συγκριτικής ανάλυσης της πολιτισμικής-ιστορικής θεωρίας του Λ. Βυγκότσκι και της παιδοκεντρικής παράδοσης, όπως εκφράζεται στις θεωρίες του Ζ.Ζ. Ρουσσώ, της Μ. Μοντεσσόρι και οτου Κ. Ρότζερς. Στο πρώτο κεφάλαιο επιχειρείται η εννοιολόγηση του όρου προσωπικότητα όπως αποτυπώνεται στις κυριότερες θεωρίες προσωπικότητας και στα επόμενα κεφάλαια παρουσιάζονται και εξεταζονται κριτικά οι θεωρίες των τεσσάρων προαναφερθέντων στοχαστών. Τέλος, διατυπώνονται ορισμένα μεθοδολογικά συμπεράσματα σχετικά με τη διαλεκτική αλληλεπίδραση μεταξύ φύσης και αγωγής στη διαδικασία διαμόρφωσης της προσωπικότητας και αναδεικνύεται η συμβολή των τεσσάρων θεωριών που εξετάστηκαν στη διαμόρφωση της παιδαγωγικής σκέψης. Επιπλέον, προσεγγίζεται η έννοια της ολόπλευρα ανεπτυγμένης προσωπικότητας ως σκοπού της αγωγής. [The present thesis aims to study personality development in the light of the interaction between biological and social factors of child development as it is discussed in the theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Maria Montessori, Carl Rogers and Lev Vygotsky. Given the fact that personality development constitutes the centre of every pedagogical theory, being the ideal to which education aims, the potential and the limits of education with regard to the development of children’s personality are examined through the comperative analysis of L. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory, and the child-centred tradition as it is presented in the theories of J.J. Rousseau, M. Montessori, and C. Rogers. In the first chapter there is an attempt to conceptually delineate the term personality as it is outlined in the main personality theories, and in the following chapters the theories of the four thinkers mentioned above are presented and critically examined. Finally, some methodological conclusions concerning the dialectical interaction between nature and education in the process of personality development are put forth, and the contribution of the four theories which were investigated in the development of pedagogical thinking is highlighted. Furthermore, the notion of the wholly developed personality as the goal of education is approached.]

Language: Greek

Published: Thessaloniki, Greece, 2018

Abstract/Notes: Giuliana Sorge (1903-1987) was one of Maria Montessori’s closest disciples. Many parts of her life are linked to the alternating vicissitudes of the spread of the Method in Italy. She is personally involved at the time of the breakdown of the relation between Maria Montessori and fascism. We find her in the immediate postwar period engaged in the reconstruction of the Montessori National Institution and in the dissemination of the Method in Italy. To do this, she weaves a network of relations with exponents of the political and ecclesiastical world assisted by the friendship of Luigia Tincani, a Catholic, Montessori’s friend, founder of what will become the Free University Maria SS. Assunta and a religious congregation. This emerges from an unpublished correspondence between these two women, which also contains interesting news relating to the hostility of prof. Aldo Agazzi towards the spread of the Montessori Method.

Language: Italian

DOI: 10.36253/rse-10374

ISSN: 2532-2818

Language: English

Language: English

Abstract/Notes: Philosophical, theoretical and scientific interest in early childhood has a very long history. The idea that the early years are the foundation of children's long term prospects is one of the most ancient, enduring and influencing themes shaping early childhood policy and provision today. The motivation and purpose for this study stems from a desire to de-familiarise that which is already known in order to reflect upon, and identify new understandings of early childhood education in relation to universal values and beliefs concerning young children's learning and development. Using an interpretative paradigm, which Habermas (1984, p.109) would describe as a "double hermeneutic" as the process involves striving to re- interpret the already interpreted world, I argue that the principles, practices and provision of early childhood education in the United Kingdom today have strong roots in the innovative pedagogies of four influential women of the 19th and 20th century: Margaret and Rachel McMillan, Maria Montessori and Susan Isaacs. This study adopts a historical stance and firstly examines how early childhood education began through exploring and reflecting upon the early philosophers of the past whose ideas, values and beliefs were influential in shaping the key women pioneers' thinking. The study then moves on to examines the roots and legacies of the four women and the contribution they each made to early childhood education today. The contribution of my thesis to current knowledge and understanding of early childhood education lies firstly in the way I have synthesised the lives and work of the four women who form the focus of this thesis and secondly, in my demonstration of the way much of what constitutes effective early childhood provision has been shaped through the course of history.

Language: English

Language: English

ISSN: 0571-1142

Abstract/Notes: This fully documented article about place-based education and citizen science offers annotated sources that can be used for Montessori programs at all levels and in all settings for site selection and curriculum connections. This compilation of resources can serve as a practical tool kit for organizing place-based learning in schools. The reader can enjoy this chapter by reading through from beginning to end or can simply go directly to the resources that are organized by type and topic.

Language: English

ISSN: 1522-9734

Language: English