Muchness, Normalization, and Montessori Theory: Tensions and Possibilities in Reinterpreting Developmental Frameworks for a Postdevelopmental Early Childhood Future

• In Event: Generative Difference and More-Than-Human Educational Worldings

Abstract

This paper uses the feminist methodology of diffraction (Barad, 2007, 2014; Haraway, 1988) to put Montessori theory and research on the phenomenon of “normalization” (Montessori, 1995) in conversation with the new materialist phenomenon of “muchness” (Thiel, 2015). The paper explores the possibility of adopting muchness as a goal in the Montessori classroom as a response to colonial critiques of Montessori’s concept of normalization (Osgood & Mohandas, 2022). Ultimately, as Montessori’s normalization is attached conceptually to her developmental framework, the paper grapples with obstacles in reinterpreting developmental early childhood theory for anticolonial aims.

Author

• Ginger Mayhew, Teachers College, Columbia University