Language: English

ISSN: 0889-5643

Abstract/Notes: In the first two decades of the Twentieth Century, reflections on teacher training were particularly rich, implying the lively and significant participation of a plurality of actors. Even Maria Montessori actively participated in this debate and the meeting with the Humanitarian Society in Milan, and with Augusto Osimo primarily, proved to be very fruitful on these issues. The specialist magazine La Coltura Popolare represents a faithful and interesting mirror of this relationship and of the many reflections and initiatives arose from it, promoting the propagation of the Montessori method and offering at the same time a space for dialogue and comparison of all the most innovative and vivifying voices of the pedagogical reflection of the time. This paper proposes a first and partial reconstruction of the significant role that La Coltura Popolare played, from 1911 to 1922, in soliciting the attention of its public on the topic of teacher training, in spreading the Montessori method, in stimulating a not biased and preconceived comparison between different approaches, experiments and views on childhood.

Language: Italian

DOI: 10.36253/rse-10385

ISSN: 2532-2818

Language: Italian

Published: Bergamo, Italy: Zeroseiup, 2015

ISBN: 978-88-99338-07-7 88-99338-07-8

Series: Culture e saperi dell'infanzia

Language: Italian

Published: Bergamo, Italy: Zeroseiup, 2015

ISBN: 978-88-99338-07-7 88-99338-07-8

Series: Culture e saperi dell'infanzia

Abstract/Notes: The aim of this article is to synthesise the results of a qualitative study on Montessori early childhood education teachers in Poland regarding the concept of meanings given to instability, chaos and change in their professional everyday life. The research was conducted among a group of thirty-five women working in kindergartens and primary schools using an individual, qualitative, semi-structured research interview, transcribed and analysed according to the procedure of phenomenography. The analysis of the outcome space made it possible to identify and describe three categories: I) change and instability as unbearable stressors, II) far from change and instability as something that is far away, III) change and instability as natural conditions for individual and organisational learning. The first category is related to conceptions of meaning that thematise instability as, something that is permanently experienced and, at the same time, something that ideally should not be experienced. This instability is primarily associated with authoritarian management styles and paternalistic treatment of teachers by employers and/or parents of children. Within the second category are narratives illustrating working conditions away from change and instability provided by the strong personalities of head teachers and authoritarian management. The third category refers to change and instability as a natural condition of the world. From this perspective, not only are they not negative, but quite the opposite. Instability and change provide opportunities for learning and at both individual and organisational levels.

Language: English

DOI: 10.17951/pe.2023.7.39-48

ISSN: 2657-3229, 2544-2317

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: Italian

ISSN: 2421-440X, 2723-9004

Language: Italian

ISSN: 2421-440X, 2723-9004

Language: Italian

ISSN: 2421-440X, 2723-9004

Language: Italian

ISSN: 2637-5400