The word spirituality has a variety of meanings. Maria Montessori explored different facets of spirituality in her writings. Though she did not explicitly define "spirituality," she focused on the spiritual nature of the child and of the teacher-child relationship, as well as the spiritual preparation of the teacher. During her lifetime,…

In "Diverse Families, Desirable Schools," Mira Debs offers a richly detailed study of public Montessori schools, which make up the largest group of progressive schools in the public sector. As public Montessori schools expand rapidly as alternatives to traditional public schools, the story of these schools, Debs points out, is a…

Purposeful, intentional racial bias poses an obvious threat to the possibility of real equity in schools. In this volume, antiracist educators explore an equally troubling, but insufficiently explored threat: the racism upheld by schools and districts that claim an antiracist commitment. These institutions perpetuate disparities by enacting that…

Montessori pedagogy is a century-old, whole-school system increasingly used in the public sector. In the United States, public Montessori schools are typically Title I schools that mostly serve children of color. The present secondary, exploratory data analysis examined outcomes of 134 children who entered a lottery for admission to public…

Montessori pedagogy is a century-old, whole-school system increasingly used in the public sector. In the United States, public Montessori schools are typically Title I schools that mostly serve children of color. The present secondary, exploratory data analysis examined outcomes of 134 children who entered a lottery for admission to public…

As an expression of personal and group identity, recognizing holidays conveys to others what teachers and their school value. Each child constructs a complex identity through experiences with their environment, "including" the holidays observed and valued by their family and broader culture. When a school community represents a child's…

Parent engagement is one approach to decrease the opportunity gap for Black, American Indian, and all children of color. This report from the field describes the use of the World Café participatory approach to support parent engagement in five early childhood, culturally embedded Montessori programs. Serving the Whole Child (SWC) is a…

Maria Montessori strongly advocated for music learning to be fully integrated into the classroom; however, many Montessori classrooms are dominated by materials aimed at developing children's visual sense. The purpose of this critical participatory action research (CPAR) study was to address this perceived learning disparity by developing and…

The aim of this article is to understand how Montessori education, according to Maria Montessori, will enable 6--12-year-olds to meet future challenges and to care for and contribute to the wellbeing of society and the planet as a whole. This article reports on a qualitative content analysis of four books written by Maria Montessori. The analysis…

This paper attempts to open out investigations in ECEC by working beyond anthropocentric accounts of gender. Drawing upon feminist new materialist philosophies we ask whether it might be possible to reconfigure ideas about gender that recognise it as produced through everyday processes and material-affective entanglements. In order to do this, we…

How often do you tell white lies? When the "New York Times" ran an article linking children's lying with their cognitive abilities (Stone, 2018), the authors decided to examine this phenomenon through the lens of Montessori philosophy. Consequently, the authors delved into the related research on lying, executive function, and prosocial…

Professional Development School Partnerships have the potential to provide unique experiences for teacher candidates and also provide important professional development for the K-12 school personnel involved in the relationship. According to the National Association of Professional Development Schools (2008), a key essential to a successful…

The Day 1 Academies Fund aims to support a network of high-quality, full-scholarship, Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities. To provide insight into the fund's pedagogical inspiration, in this report I provide a high-level overview of the Montessori preschool landscape in the United States. This overview includes 5 key…

Multiage, child-size, and accessible, the Montessori classroom provides a prepared environment that maximizes self-regulated activity. Designed to be intuitive and conducive to children's development at multiple developmental planes, the classroom nurtures each child's growing independence. Ideally, the principles underlying the Montessori…

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact mindfulness practices would have on the independent learning processes of third-grade students in a Montessori setting. For the purpose of the study, independent learning processes were measured using three parameters: (a) self-reports of perceived learning on-task and off-task behaviors, (b)…