Walking a Desire Track: Montessori Pedagogy as Resistance to Normative Pathways

Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals

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19

Montessori Method; Early Childhood Education; Resistance (Psychology); Educational Policy; Nontraditional Education; Professional Autonomy; Foreign Countries; Labor Force Development; Teacher Qualifications; Career Pathways; Early Childhood Teachers; Teacher Attitudes; Preschools; Professional Identity; Curriculum; Work Environment

10.1080/14681366.2024.2355097

1468-1366
1747-5104

Following calls to 'bewilder' (Snaza 2013) the pioneers of early education, this article positions Montessori pedagogy as a 'desire path' that acts as resistance to normative policy-driven pathways in early childhood education and care. Desire paths are alternative tracks made aside from officially established walking routes. In this paper I think with the metaphor of pathways and desire paths positioning an educator's choice to practice Montessori pedagogy as an approach which wanders outside of mainstream qualifications and education. To do this, I take fragments of a professional life story that chart the agentic nature of choosing Montessori pedagogy as a way to problematise how walking that desire line challenges, and defies normative pathways. I also propose a re-reading of Montessori's pedagogy, not as pioneering but as nomadic, and suggest that "social" desire paths enable Montessori education to be viewed as multiple, situated, alternative tracks to prescribed pathways.

As Provided

2024

EJ1428329