Making Sense of Montessori Teacher Identity, Montessori Pedagogy, and Educational Policies in Public Schools

Montessori teachers in public schools navigate a system daily that often does not align with their pedagogy, and district policies push them to stray from high-fidelity implementation. Using Weick’s sensemaking theory literature on teacher identity, I contend teachers’ identity plays crucial role how, or if, they respond educational may seemingly the Method. The overarching purpose of this study was understand school experiences influence pedagogy. Through qualitative interviews culminating group-level assessment session, three themes emerged as shared policies: (a) pedagogy is more than materials, (b) districts force district-wide requirements are at odds (c) do feel supported. This article concludes discussion how better support settings based study’s findings.