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This book explores how the Montessori movement developed a cultural critique and gained momentum during the interwar years of political turbulence. Drawing on archival sources, press material and Montessori's literary output, the book provides a multifaceted analysis of this significant educational movement. The first two chapters presents the scientific background, how Montessori's innovative method offered new solutions to age-old problems of teacher-pupil interaction. The following chapters focus on the social and psycho-pedagogical aspects of Montessorism, and how the movement's culture-critical message about the child's liberation was received and reinterpreted in the wider European public debate. The last four chapters shed new light on the politicisation of Italian Montessorism during the problematic Montessori-Mussolini alliance, 1924-1934.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Situating Montessori.- Chapter 2: The Invisible Montessori Teacher.- Chapter 3: Influencing Public Opinion.- Chapter 4: Individual Work: British Montessorism.- Chapter 5: The Call of Education.- Chapter 6: Politicisation of Italian Montessorism.- Chapter 7: Opera Nazionale Montessori.- Chapter 8: Imperial and Pacifist Visions.- Chapter 9: Montessorism without Montessori.
About the author
Christine Quarfood is Professor of History of Ideas at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her publications include Condillac la statue et l'enfant: Philosophie et pédagogie au siècle des Lumières (2002) and Positivism med mänskligt ansikte: Montessoripedagogikens idéhistoriska grunder (2005). Her research focuses on the intersection between science, politics and educational ideas.
