Montessori in Action Podcast

Coming up in June is a unique conference opportunity- the first ever Black Montessori Conference will take place June 20th-22nd at Howard University in Washington, DC. This episode of Montessori in Action Podcast features the organizers of the conference: Meisha Perrin and Dr. Ayize Sabater. They share the inspirations and aspirations for the event.

Have you ever wished you had superpowers? In this next episode, meet four people with superpowers who are starting two public Montessori schools- one in Columbus, Ohio and one in Oklahoma City. These two couples envisioned tuition-free Montessori programs to serve their communities and they are bringing them into being! Both schools will open their doors this August. Rachelle and Josh Smith will be opening the school in Columbus, and Rufus and Summer Howard will be opening the school in Oklahoma City. Join us to hear about their visions and journeys.

This episode is a conversation with Dr. Kathy Escamilla, who shares her extraordinary contribution to Bilingual education in the United States. She takes us through her fifty-year career in the field and helps us to understand the developments in Bilingual education that have happened across that time. As a former president of the National Association for Bilingual Education, co-editor of the Bilingual Research Journal, and chairperson of the Bilingual SIG for the American Education Research Association, Dr. Escamilla has a unique perspective on the maturation of Bilingual education in American schools across the country.

Join guest-host Maati Wafford with Dr. Juanita Imelda Johnson, a long time teacher at Dater Montessori School in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Kristen Smiterman-Voltaire, a parent at Dater, as they discuss their experiences with Equity Impact Circles.

Our episode this month looks at how current neuroscience supports the work we do in Montessori classrooms. Our guest, Veronica Burbano, an experienced Montessori teacher, shares the research she has uncovered that explains why staying true to the pedagogy matters.

This episode is a conversation with some adults who attended Montessori schools as children. They came together to talk about their experiences in their Montessori classrooms, transitioning from Montessori and looking back now on how their early education has affected who they are today. Please join me in welcoming Janyah Bradley and A'Kala Chaires.

Season 5, episode 5 is a conversation with Dr. LaNail R. Plummer, the founder of Onyx Therapy Group a Black, Woman, and Veteran-owned business, dedicated to addressing mental health issues and disparities in communities, organizations, federal government, and individuals in need. We talked about supporting Key children in classrooms and the use of Observation, relationship building and attuning to our own biases and activators. Now more than ever our Key children need us to understand behavior is communication and Dr. Plummer shared some insights on how to do this.

For more than 15 years, Lucy Recio has worked at the intersection of communications, strategy, and organizing. She builds campaigns, programs, and systems in service to community led movements that advance justice and our collective liberation. Anchored by reciprocal, transformative relationships, my work endeavors to inform policy and legislation, enact systems change, shift power structures, and shape public understanding and perception around issues impacting young children, women, and BIPOC communities.

Street Data: A Next Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and Social Transformation invites readers to rethink this era of high stakes testing and engage in new ways of ensuring growth in school for all learners. Co-author, Dr. Jamila Dugan joins Montessori in Action to talk about equity traps & tropes, street data, and how it can be used to shift the focus in schools.  “We don't need improvement. We need an approach that fundamentally and radically transforms the experiences of children and families at the margins. This is the purpose of centering street data in the process of transformation.”

Our conversation this month is with Meisha Perrin, the new Executive Director of the Black Montessori Education Fund, a non-profit project founded to increase access and support diversity and inclusion in Montessori education by investing in Black educators, children, administrators, and researchers in the US and globally.

We launch Season Five with our Summer Reads episode, where we offer you ideas of something to read this summer. This year, rather than an author, we have a conversation with Joke Verheul who works in the Montessori Archives in Amsterdam. Joke has worked there since the start of the Archives and is pleased to share ten years of Treasure Articles.

"Are you more curious to know or to understand concepts?” This is the question that opens the research done by  A group of 5 researchers including Montessorian, Solange Denervaud  Our final episode for this season is a conversation with Solange who helps us unpack the findings of Learning by Heart or with Heart: Brain Asymmetry Reflects Pedagogical Practices. This research shows that how children learn shapes the brain's core mechanisms for learning. It looks at the brains of children schooled in traditional settings and compares them to those who attended Montessori schools. The results are fascinating.

Episode eight of this season is a conversation with Antria Goss. Antria is the first Montessori Coach to serve in the Cincinnati Public School District. Antria works in the public Montessori schools in Cincinnati as a Montessori Coach to the teachers. In our conversation, she shares about her role, the work she does and the support she receives from the district.

Our next episode of Montessori in Action features Guest Host, Genevieve D'Cruz. In this conversation, Genevieve speaks with two Montessorians- Elena Gonzalez. and  Jamila Ford  who were Assistants in Genevieve's classroom when she was a Primary Guide. Both of these educators went on to take their Montessori training and are now leading classrooms of their own. In reminiscing about their time together, they talk about their experience in Montessori training, and share insight and wisdom for Assistants, Guides, and anyone aspiring to go to Montessori training themselves.

This episode brings together three Montessorians from three different Montessori organizations for a conversation about social justice. Maati Wafford, the Director of Equity and Engagement for the American Montessori Society (AMS), Jacqui Miller, the Human Rights and Social Justice Committee chair for the Association Montessori International United States of America (AMI USA) and Cindy Acker leader of the Social Justice Task Force for the International Montessori Council (IMC) come together to talk about their work and the work we all need to continue to do in order to bring about change in our society.   “Adults must defend children. We adults must see the real humanity in children, the humanity which will take our place one day, if we are to have social progress. Social progress means that the next generation is better than the one before.” Dr. Montessori, 1946 London Lectures   Check out our free tool to support your work: Collectively Renewing Montessori Curriculum: An Invitation (pdf)

Our first episode for this calendar year is with two authors who are coming out with a new book. Junnifa Uzodike  and Simone Davies are co-authors of the book The Montessori Baby which came out in 2021. They are now about to release their new book The Montessori Child which will be available for purchase March 5, 2024. They last spoke with Montessori in Action in Season 2 for Episode 2 about their first book together. Now they've returned to share with us The Montessori Child.

Season four continues with a conversation with Sheri Bishop. Sheri will be giving a talk in January entitled: Are Montessori Educators Barely Awake, Woke, or Too Woke for Our Time and Place? In this episode, she discusses the history of the term woke as well as her thoughts on the topic of awakening.

Sankofa Montessori is a new charter public school in Georgia that just opened its doors this school year. Our episode this month features two of their five-member leadership team- Jasmine See, who is the Manager of Student Culture and Family Engagement, and Chantille Chelich who is the Associate Director of Academics. This conversation explores their experience opening a public school as they share the school's vision and their commitment to fully implementing it.

Recently a systematic review of Montessori research was released that found that relative to traditional education, Montessori education has a positive effect on children's academic and non-academic outcomes. The review looked at 32 rigorous studies from 8 countries around the world, focused on children from early childhood through to high school. As the plain summary concludes “Across a wide range of implementations (likely reflecting the range of Montessori implementations in the real world) and in studies of moderate to high quality, Montessori education has a nontrivial impact on children's academic and non-academic outcomes.” This episode is a conversation with two people on the research team: Angeline Lillard, the author of Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius as well as numerous Montessori studies, and Justus Randolph, the lead researcher on the project who is the author of Multidisciplinary Methods in Educational Technology Research and Development as well as many other manuscripts and publications.

To launch Season 4 of the Montessori in Action Podcast, our topic is dual language and Montessori. We have two guests who have recently written articles about this unique combination. Gabriela Iturrald Espejo, the biliteracy coordinator at Montessori del Mundo, wrote The Science of Reading for Bilingual Children which appeared in Montessori Public's recent issue. Sally Ness, the Director of Admissions at Intercultural Montessori Language School, wrote Dual Language, Montessori Education- The Pathway for Peace, which appeared in Montessori Life. These two educators unpacked some of the complexities of schools that offer both Montessori and dual language programs.

For the final episode of Season Three we will be featuring a summer read. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Montessori Education is a brand new  accessible resource tracing Montessori education from its historical roots to current scholarship and contemporary issues of culture, social justice, and environmentalism. It is offered in six sections covering a range of topics related to Maria Montessori and Montessori education including foundations and evolution of the field; key writings; pedagogy across the lifespan; scholarly research; global reach; and contemporary considerations such as gender, inclusive education, race and multilingualism. The book is authored by scholars and practitioners based in over 20 countries, and today we welcome two of the contributors: Sid Mohandas and Nacole Walker

Veronica Sias is the Montessori District Coordinator in Dallas for the Dallas Independent School District. In her first year in the position, she developed a district-wide professional development day to serve all the Montessori schools. Gathering for a day, and rotating through a variety of workshops and speakers, the staff of the schools learned together, connected and felt the power of their community. Join us as Veronica talks about her journey creating this experience for her district.

Dr. Montessori writes in Citizen of the World “What is most wanted is no patronizing charity for humanity, but a reverent consciousness of its dignity and worth.” This next conversation with professor, consultant, and author Donna Hicks explores her most recent book Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People, which was published by Yale University Press in August 2018. Her dignity work is a result of her unofficial diplomatic efforts to bring peace to places in conflict around the world. Our discussion takes us into the importance of dignity work in classrooms and how our awareness is the beginning point of that work.

In this episode we learn about the Black Wildflowers Fund, a new entity and sister organization of Wildflower Schools that will be co-led by our guests Maia Blankenship and Dr. Erika McDowell. This fund has been created so more Wildflower Schools led by proven black educators can flourish in neighborhoods across the country.

This episode features two Montessori trainers who talked with us about the experience of serving their communities.  Isabel Arce Garcia works at the Instituto Nueva Escuela in Puerto Rico and Khairieh Al Kalam works at the Sharjah Education Academy in the  United Arab Emirates.

Our next episode is a conversation with Victoria Johnson, who shares the results of her research, Education Anywhere: A Constructivist Grounded Theory study of Montessori Around the World. In this study, Victoria spent multiple years exploring the experiences of individuals and communities connected with diverse Montessori environments across the globe. Her research has produced some insightful theoretical models that help us understand the deeper meanings and processes of diversity and adaptability within Montessori from a worldwide perspective. Together we discuss important aspects of these findings, including the tension we often experience between authenticity and adaptability in our journeys of Montessori implementation.

As times change, the preparation of Montessori educators must also. In this conversation, primary trainer, Uma Ramani shares ways in which she has shifted both the course and content to address the needs of the adult learner and in pursuit of reaching all learners.

This month is a conversation with Vonnie Brown, the new Chief Operating Officer at Association Montessori International- USA. Her Montessori connection began through the doorway of a Wôpanâak language cultural immersion Montessori school founded on her tribal land. She joins the team at AMI USA with a vision of greater access for all learners and an interest in inclusivity.

Our next episode features the emergence of public Montessori in the Ukraine. Anna Volokhova and Viktoriia Shcherbyna and  talk about their Montessori journeys, the impact of the war in Ukraine and their work together to support Montessori schools during this time. Anna is the CEO of Montessori UA, an organization founded this past spring in response to the war in Ukraine with a goal of bringing people together and spreading the Montessori method across the country.  Viktoriia is the director of a Montessori program who working with the government to support open access to Montessori education.

Our next episode is a conversation with Trisha Moquino and Marcus Trujillo, the creators of new Montessori material coming out through Montessori Services. This material offers Montessori classrooms nomenclature cards created by Indigenous educators that represent Indigenous people across the land. Trisha is the author and Marcus is the illustrator of this new work created to reach children and educators with their words and beauty.

Rungano Montessori on Wheels is a mobile learning incubator whose mission is to create Montessori-based learning environments within Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities.    In this episode we hear from Tatenda Blessing Muchiriri, the Founder and executive director of Rungano Montessori on Wheels as he shares the inspiration for and journey of actualizing this project.

Welcome to Season Three! Last season we launched with an episode about summer reads- Montessori-related books to explore. Our premier episode for this season will do the same as we discuss The Future of Smart: How Our Education System Needs to Change to Help all Young People Thrive. The author, Dr. Ulcca Joshi Hansen, shares her inspiration for the book and how Montessori schools play a role in changing our education system so all children flourish.

Our final episode for this season is a conversation with two passionate Montessorians exploring the intersection of high quality Montessori implementation and special education. This interesting discussion exposes some of the tensions that exists between prevailing thoughts in special education when interacting with the Montessori philosophy. Ideas of language choice, structures and systems, and ongoing professional development are shared about best practices for Montessori guides creating environemnts supportive of all learners and their families.

Our next episode is a conversation with two Montessori educators who are working on a project called ‘Renewing the Montessori Curriculum'. This is a group of Montessori practitioners who are working to renew the Montessori curriculum - thinking and talking about how Dr. Montessori's liberatory principles would be applied with a lens of equity, in a way that is culturally responsive, and what current practice needs to shift to meet Dr. Montessori's original vision. The team is rewriting lessons and stories, creating new lessons and stories, as well as developing Montessori material to be used in classrooms.

Our next episode is a conversation with Sarah Harvey, the founder of Sankofa Montessori, a proposed culturally responsive, child and family-centered tuition-free Montessori charter school opening in Atlanta, Georgia in August of 2023. Sarah lives in Atlanta with her daughter Yaa and husband, Tyler. 

Amira Mogaji, EdD, is the president of the AMS Board of Directors and a founding board member of Montessori for Social Justice. Her special interests lie in Montessori public school education and anti-bias, antiracist education. Previously, she has worked as chief academic officer for City Garden Montessori School in St. Louis, MO; principal of Northglade Montessori Magnet School in Kalamazoo, MI; chief executive officer of Philadelphia Montessori Charter School and principal of Chester Upland School District and Village Charter School, both in Chester, PA. She has served as a Culturally Responsive Education facilitator and is a member of ERACCE: Eliminating Racism and Creating/Celebrating Equity regional team in Kalamazoo, MI. AMS credentialed (Administrator).   More information about the AMS Pre-Conference Day for public Montessori Educators    Read more about the 2016 Yale Study Dr. Mogaji mentions in the conversation.

Our guests for this episode are from The Montessori Accreditation Council for Teacher Education ( MACTE) which is an organization that accredits Montessori teacher education programs. They are committed to improving academic degree and certificate programs for Montessori professional educators who teach and lead in schools at the Infant and Toddler through Secondary II levels.    As one of only two teacher education accreditors, MACTE is a member of the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors (ASPA) and is nationally recognized by the United States Department of Education (USDE).  Founded in 1995, its constituency now represents a broad range of educational institutions not limited to those within the United States.

Season Two, Episode 7 of Montessori in Action Podcast hosts a conversation with two Montessori educators working in Elementary classrooms in public Montessori schools. They had not met or spoken prior to this conversation. The topic for discussion is how children are reentering school this year following the disruptions of the pandemic and what educators are doing to support them.

Season Two, Episode 6 of Montessori in Action Podcast hosts a conversation with three Montessori educators working in 3-6 classrooms in public Montessori schools. They had not met or spoken prior to this conversation. The topic for discussion is how young children are reentering school this year following the disruptions of the pandemic and what educators are doing to support them. There are two outtakes included in this episode where the guests reflect on a bright moment of their day.

Wildflower is an ecosystem of decentralized Montessori micro-schools that support children, teachers, and families. They aspire to give all children and families the opportunity to have high quality education in beautiful learning environments and they do this through the creation of small teacher-led schools. Our guests for this episode are the leadership team for a new initiative in Washington, DC: A Wildflower public charter school. The DC Wildflower Public Charter School, is a non-hierarchical organization that will create up to six — one-room, community embedded micro-Montessori schools led by teachers, embedded in a neighborhood serving families in the District of Columbia. To learn more about the DC Wildflower Public Charter School check out this blogpost.

Episode Four is a conversation with American Montessori Society Executive Director, Munir Shivji and Director of Equity and Engagement, Maati Wafford. These leaders share their current work in the organization as well as the plans for new initiatives.

This episode is a conversation with Ayize Sabater as he shares his journey to become the Executive Director of AMI USA, and his vision for the work ahead in the organization. He also talks about his role in establishing the Black Montessori Educational Fund.

Our August episode brings co-authors from two continents together to talk about their book Montessori Baby. Drawing on principles developed by Dr. Montessori, The Montessori Baby explores how to interact with your baby from birth to age one with love, respect, and insight. Co-written by Junnifa Uzodike and Simone Davies, author of The Montessori Toddler, it is filled with practical ideas for understanding what is happening with your baby through the first year, and how you can mindfully assist in their learning and development.

Welcome back to another year with Montessori in Action Podcast, celebrating authors as they release books in our Montessori community. Mariana Bissonnette has written Babies Build Toddlers, a special parenting book that makes child development information both accessible and actionable for everyday readers. It explores the unfolding of the child during the first part of the first plane of development. A beautiful book, with a variety of illustrations that capture the lives of different families, it is the ideal gift for all caregivers of young children. Erica Moretti's book The Best Weapon for Peace: Maria Montessori, Education and Children's Rights explores changes in pacifist thought in the first half of the twentieth century in Europe through the work of Italian educator Maria Montessori. Upcoming interview  

“For success in life depends in every case on self confidence and the knowledge of one's own capacity and many-sided powers of adaptation.” From Childhood to Adolescence by Dr. Maria Montessori.    This Anniversary episode is a celebration of one year together. It holds thoughts from previous guests as they look back at the past school year and reflect on what they learned. They offer a cache (a collection of something stored away for future use) of insights to take forward into the future.   Insights on: Collaboration Adaptation Creativity Hope Energy   Thank you to the contributors for their reflections, their resilience and their commitment to holding children at the center. And thank you, listener, for all you are doing to forward this work. Congratulations to everyone on the completion of this 2020-21 school year. Contributors to this episode: Bobby Johnson, Dean of Students and Culture at Lee Montessori in Washington, DC Hadar Peled, the CEO and Founder of Milla in Israel Hannah Richardson, Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Breakthrough Montessori in Washington, DC Jacqui Miller, Director of Montessori Programming and Operations for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District in Cleveland, OH Koren Clark, Partner with Wildflower Schools, CEO and Co-founder of Knowthyselfinc, based in Oakland, CA Katie Rucker, Head of School at Moore Montessori Community School in Southern Pines, NC Dr. Lucy Canzoneri-Golden, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Coral Reef Montessori Academy Charter School in Miami, FL  Patrizia Mercuri, Director of the Istituto Comprensivo San Donato in Sardinia, Italy  

This episode is a conversation with Patrizia Mercuri, director of the Istituto Comprensivo San Donato in Sardinia, Italy. The school began as a traditional program until Mercuri was approached by parents with the request to begin a Montessori classroom. This public Montessori school, nestled within a larger public school, continues to grow each year and in the coming year will welcome 128 children.

Join us for episode ten, a conversation with long-time Montessorian, Jacqui Miller. In this engaging discussion, Miller shares both her history and her vision - bringing some big dreams forward for the Montessori community. Her dedication to education as a means to social change and community development comes through clearly as does her commitment to visionary leadership.    

Our next episode is a conversation with Amelia Allen Sherwood, the Anti-Bias & Anti-Racism Director at Elm City Montessori School in New Haven, Connecticut. She shares with listeners her work at Elm City to promote equity and her vision for the Sankofa Learning Center. For more information about Amelia’s work, visit her website.

Ana María García Blanco es una educadora Puertorriqueña que es la pionera de educación pública Montessori en la isla. Actualmente, es la Directora Ejecutiva del Instituto Nueva Escuela, una organización no lucrativa, comprometida a la transformación social y educacional del sistema de educación pública a través del método Montessori.Como una educadora con su licenciatura, maestría y doctorado de la Universidad Harvard, siempre ha creído que la educación es la clave para el cambio y el progreso social. Ella fundó la primera escuela pública Montessori en Puerto Rico, La Nueva Escuela Juan Ponce de León, donde fue directora durante 23 años. Ayudo reducir la deserción escolar, erradicar la violencia escolar e involucrar a las familias en el proyecto social-académico de la escuela.

In a conversation with Ana Maria Garcia Blanco, listeners will be invited into the world of public Montessori in Puerto Rico. As the Principal of the first public Montessori program on the island, other schools turned to her for support building public Montessori programs to serve their children. This led to the founding of the Instituto Nueva Escuela where she has been the Executive Director since 2009— now serving 46 public schools around the Island. As the winner of the American Montessori Society’s Living Legacy Award for 2020, Dr. Garcia was described as “An educator who has transformed the future of public Montessori in Puerto Rico.” In this conversation, she shares her passion and insight about the influence Montessori schools have had on the community and the influence the community has had on the Montessori schools.

In this episode, Mira Debs, author of Diverse Families, Desirable Schools talks about the impetus for her book, her findings and the community conversations that followed its publication.