A vocabulary co-created by Montessori practitioners

The Montessori Glossary Community Project is an open community dedicated to knowledge equity, shared authority, and the co-creation of an open-access vocabulary of Montessori terms. We welcome participants from a variety of backgrounds, including practitioners, scholars, activists, and more.

Mission

To co-construct and maintain an open access controlled vocabulary of Montessori subject terms.

Vision

We envision an international, multilingual, multi-perspective, participatory linked data vocabulary of Montessori terms that enhances access to resources.

Values

Our values are rooted in collaboration and inclusion, while committing to continuous improvement through feedback. We aim to empower educators by providing resources that enhance their teaching practices and support their professional development.

History

The educational science, methodology, and philosophy of Dr. Maria Montessori keep revealing ‘new ‘insights that modern science is only now just (re)confirming, yet other elements of her work are more ‘time-bound’, some have evolved, or have the potential to evolve, into new areas of educational greatness. We encourage looking for inspiration in the work of peers and mentors of Montessori, as well as finding conformation in modern science. Especially in relation to the third and fourth planes, where Montessori’s work was far from complete. If anything, we read her work as an invitation for the generations following in her observing scientific and spiritual educational footsteps to continue discovering how best to help adolescents and young adults to become interdependent, listen to their inner guide, and be proactive members of the local and global community serving peace, equity, and mother earth with all their talents and abilities. This is a task of the community, and the community includes you. As such we welcome happy inspiration, valid critique, new sources, other points of view, and so on. The Montessori community thrives best when we aim to inspire each other in honour of the inspiration we all have found in Dr. Montessori’s work.

Photo of Montessori concept term magnets on a black magnet board at a conference booth

Montessori Glossary Community Project Team

Bodeene Amyot Cairdeas
Bodeene Amyot CairdeasProject Co-Director
Bodeene Amyot Cairdeas is the Digital & Audiovisual Archivist at James Madison University Libraries. Prior to joining JMU, she was the Mukurtu Indigenous Community Archive Hub Manager at the University of Oregon Libraries. She earned a BA in History from Carleton University, an M.Ed. from the University of Hartford, and postgraduate certificates in Archival Studies and Documentary Production. She also holds an AMI Primary teaching diploma and Master of Library & Information Science degree. Her passion for ethical curation, epistemic justice, Montessori education, and participatory taxonomy design has led her to projects such as the Montessori Glossary Community Project, which she is tremendously grateful to be a part of. Her research interests include community-engaged learning using oral histories, ethically-minded and culturally sustaining digital curation practices, and accessible audiovisual archives.
Dr. Paige Bray
Dr. Paige BrayProject Co-Director
Director of the Center for Montessori Studies and Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Hartford, Connecticut, USA. She has worked with colleagues, allies and accomplices in community to address systemic inequities for over three decades. Her teaching expertise focuses on the personal “reflexes” and professional identity transitions fostered through dynamic inquiry and the use of meta-cognitive tools with both undergraduate and graduate level pre-service teachers as well as credentialed teachers across the career continuum. An activist for children and families, Dr. Bray’s research is grounded by a community context and consistently emphasizes human capacity as knowledge producers as well as knowledge consumers. Bray is a National Commissioner for the National Association for the Education of Young Children (USA) and an alumna of the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education Program at Harvard University. She earned her B.A. and M.Ed. from Sarah Lawrence College and her Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Bray integrates her research, theory, and practice through the URBAN network by focusing on public scholarship and is helping to develop emerging educational spaces as a co-founder of Planes of Learning.
Rogér Djik
Rogér DjikFounding Editorial Member
Rogér Dijk serves as a Montessori Trainer at the Montessori Scholengemeenschap Amsterdam. His credentials include a Montessori Mastery post-bachelor Diploma. He holds positions as a Montessori Coordinator and trainer for both introductory and foundation courses. He is a faculty member at the Pedagogy Department of the University of Applied Science Amsterdam (HvA). He is also an instructor of English as a second language (L2), a coach, and a speaker. He is an energetic person with a cosmic vision of life.
Savannah Schnall
Savannah SchnallEditorial Member
Savannah Schnall is a lifelong Montessorian, both as a former student and as guide. She holds an AMI 3-6 diploma from Montessori Northwest and a Master’s degree in Montessori Education from Loyola University Maryland. Savannah has been in the classroom since 2014 and currently teaches at Grow Montessori School, a nonprofit school in Atlanta dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion. Savannah is passionate about making Montessori education accessible to both children and adults. Her efforts include writing educational grant proposals, following the latest research in Montessori and child development, building community connections, volunteering with Montessori Partnerships for Georgia, and contributing to the Montessori Glossary. She is excited to be a part of this important project!

Frequently Asked Questions

Anyone with knowledge of Montessori education, including educators, practitioners, parents, administrators, researchers, and community members, is welcome to contribute terms and definitions.

You can submit any terminology relevant to Montessori education, including specific teaching methods, materials, concepts, and practices that are not already included in the glossary.

Use either the designated submission form, Add a New Term, or you may collaborate with others on new and existing terms and definitions within the shared Collaborative Canvas by add comments on terms and/or liking term definitions. Ensure you include the term, a clear and concise definition, any relevant citations, and your contact information.

Each submission should include:

  • The preferred term you wish to add
  • A clear and concise definition
  • Relevant citations or references to support your definition in APA format
  • Any contextual information (community or historical note) that may help clarify the term’s usage

Yes, please refer to our Style Guide. Though, do not be afraid to submit if your submission does not adhere to our style guide!

Submissions will be reviewed by members of our editorial community who will evaluate for clarity, relevance, and adherence to controlled vocabulary standards. You will be notified about the status of your submission.

Yes! We encourage you to submit one term per form. If you have multiple terms, please fill out separate forms for each.

If your term is synonymous with an existing entry, please indicate this in your submission by including “SEE” followed by the relevant term. If it relates to an existing term but has a different context or meaning, provide additional clarification in your definition. You may also use the Montessori Glossary term feedback form to offer suggested edits or additional metadata for existing terms.

You can submit terms at any time throughout the project. We encourage ongoing contributions as our glossary evolves.

The Montessori Glossary Community Project was incubated at the Center for Montessori Studies at the University of Hartford and is supported by Co-Directors, Dr. Paige Bray, and Bodeene Amyot Cairdeas, and a community of editorial members. We are grateful for the engagement of community partners such the Montessori Bibliography Online and early adopters such as Montessori Training Center Northeast and Train Montessori. We wholeheartedly invite others to join our efforts.

The glossary will be used as a comprehensive resource for understanding key terms and concepts related to Montessori education. Here are several ways it will be utilized:

  1. Educational resource: The glossary will serve as a reference for educators, administrators, teachers in training, parents, researchers, and students to gain clarity on Montessori concepts, enhancing their understanding of Montessori philosophy, methodology, and practice.
  2. Training tool: It will be used in training programs for new Montessori practitioners, providing them with vocabulary and references.
  3. Community engagement: By providing a collective vocabulary, the glossary will facilitate enhanced communication among community members, stakeholders, and policy-makers, helping to unify understanding and practices whilst representing diverse contexts across different Montessori environments globally.
  4. Research reference: Researchers studying Montessori education can use the glossary as a resource to ensure they are using relevant terms.
  5. Parent education: The glossary will also be beneficial for parents who wish to understand the language of Montessori education, enabling them to partner with guides in support of their children’s optimal development.
  6. Information retrieval: As an information retrieval thesaurus, the glossary is structured as a SKOS controlled vocabulary, which provides a standardized way to represent taxonomies that serve to improve search and retrieval processes.

A SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) offers numerous benefits for information retrieval, including:

  1. Query expansion: SKOS relationships between concepts can be used to refine and expand user queries, improving search results.
  2. Semantic relationships: The broader, narrower, and related relationships in SKOS allow retrieval systems (catalogs, etc.) to improve retrieval effectiveness. If, for example, the system is aware that the concept “Absorbent mind” is semantically narrower than “First plane of development” or that “Microeconomy” and “Production and exchange” are two terms denoting the same concept (i.e., synonyms) it could expand query terms to improve retrieval effectiveness.
  3. Multilingual support: SKOS concepts can have labels in multiple languages, facilitating multilingual information retrieval.
  4. Vocabulary integration: SKOS allows for defining relationships between concepts from different vocabularies (such as the ERIC Thesaurus), enabling the use of multiple domain-specific vocabularies in a single retrieval system.

Yes! We are using a free, open source SKOS vocabulary application called TemaTres to manage the glossary. TemaTres can be integrated with library systems, enabling libraries to use the glossary as an open access controlled vocabulary of Montessori subject terms for cataloging and indexing information resources.

Controlled vocabularies improve access to relevant resources, as catalogers use terms from controlled vocabularies to describe information resources (descriptive metadata). Think of a controlled vocabulary (the glossary) as a standardized list of terms that catalogers use to describe books and articles. This means that when you search for something, you are more likely to find relevant books, articles, and materials because related terms are linked together. We envision a future in which Montessori-specific terms are used to describe Montessori information resources.

We are using the Hypothesis annotation tool in the open publishing platform Pressbooks, hosted by James Madison University Libraries, to facilitate community annotation and discussion. Navigate to the Montessori Glossary Community Project e-book. You will see the Hypothesis annotation client in the top right corner of the reading interface. You can log in or create a free Hypothesis account to start annotating. You can highlight text sections and choose to add annotations. Annotations can be made public or private, allowing for either collaborative discussions or personal notes. Note that annotations can be edited, deleted, or replied to. You can also share your annotations using the icons provided within the annotation section.

Preferred citation:
Amyot, B., Bray, P., & Dijk, R. (Eds.). (2022, Autumn). Montessori Glossary Community Project. Retrieved from vocabulary.montessoriglossary.org.