This thesis argues that the practice and discourse of Montessori education should be
explicitly concerned with the creation of a culture of response rather than with the
implementation of a method. It is argued that in order for a culture of response to occur
there must be within Montessori discourse and practice an explicit recognition of the need
for teachers to engage critically and continuously with the assumptions that underpin
Montessori thought and practice.
This is difficult, however, because there is a tension between Montessori as a method and
Montessori as response. An attempt is made to examine Montessori discourse in order to
understand the nature of this tension. This involves looking at Montessori discourse from
a perspective that borrows from Poststructuralist thinking.
It is suggested that in Montessori discourse there exists a relationship between certain
elements of the discourse and its practices that may bind tightly together the subjectivity,
or identity, of the teacher; the claims to legitimacy and truth of the discourse itself; and
particular, positivist, notions of the individual, of truth, nature, change, society, and
knowledge.
From a Postructuralist perspective this constellation of relationships begins to unravel
when Montessori discourse is seen to arise from specific beliefs and assumptions that
underpin apparently common sense understandings regarding children, learning, society
and change. These understandings may result in the maintenance of the dichotomy
between the observer and the observed, the teacher and the child, the knower and the
known and the inevitable power relations that accompany such dichotomies. This
Poststructuralist concern with the issue of power is thus a significant issue for educators
who are attempting to provide a learning environment that is responsive to children's
diverse attempts to make sense of the world and to find a voice. A critical engagement
with Montessori discourse, and practice, thus requires an engagement with the ways in
which it may construct a relationship between teacher and child that may be inimical to the
development of a culture of response in Montessori schools.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218917 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Erskine, Peter, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Teacher Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Peter Erskine |
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