La pedagogía en femenino de María Montessori: un vínculo colaborativo entre ciencia, educación y feminismo.

Abstract

This reflection paper is the result of an analytical exercise around the experiences of Maria Montessori as a scholar and feminist woman between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Following a chronological order —not necessarily linear— of the most significant historical aspects analyzed in the light of different sources of study (conferences, books, research, articles, among others), it is intended to highlight the particular influence of the pedagogical elaborations of a woman in the educational field; a woman who lived in a time when social and cultural reality only valued the female role as a homemaker and denied their value in science, still, she manages to venture into the academic and research territory. I present comments and reflections of this excursus aiming to restore, to a certain extent, the philosophical dignity of the renowned pedagogue, that is, the vindication of her thought beyond the Method application perspective. The emphasis is on examining the pedagogical work of Maria Montessori under a lens that amplifies the reflection of a life characterized by a properly feminine and feminist style in an Italy that, galloping between the old and the new century, saw the birth of a New emancipated Woman, able to con-front the positivism of the macho monopoly of her time. Consequently, this philosopher, anthropologist, doctor, pedagogue and feminist —with the help of an important participation of women who marked her history— establishes a complete educational revolution in Italy, and later international impact.