Foundation of North-Eastern Montessori School
Alignment of Montessori and Indigenous Pedagogies
The table below articulates the alignment of Montessori principles and practices and the pedagogical elements in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children learn best.
| Montessori Principles and Practices | Learning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples |
|---|---|
|
Curriculum topics are framed by using stories (i.e. including how the universe was formed, how grammar symbols came about in written language). |
Focus on story-telling & the importance of ‘yarning’ as a means of sharing information and ideas in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures (Yunkaporta & Kirby, 2011). |
|
Learning materials which allow for self-correction are used by students to build mastery of skills through repetition. |
Clear preference for learning through personal trial and error, and which promotes persistence and repetition (Stewart, 2002). |
|
‘Isolation of concept’ is used as a means of presenting information in small, manageable chunks, reducing cognitive load on students, so they can practice explicit skills and then frame them in the larger construct of their world and make relevant connections. |
‘Deconstruct to reconstruct’ pedagogy is a way of orienting the teaching so that the learner can see the bigger picture first but is able to practice skills by having the learning broken into smaller parts (Yunkaporta, 2009). |
|
Learning through observation of both peers and teachers through one to one or small group modelling. |
Learning which enables the student to engage in observation of others (Stewart, 2002). |
|
Montessori tenet that the ‘work of the hand’ is integral to learning; focus on the connection between movement and learning, and the concrete materials used by students and teachers which physically represent abstract concepts. |
Deep knowledge is derived from learning that occurs which is beyond words, including that which comes from experience and through kinesthetic means, which involves the work of the hands (Yunkaporta, 2009). |
|
Symbols are used throughout a students’ learning journey to assist in learning concepts (i.e. symbols used to identify parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, particles, adverbs and adjectives). |
Symbols and images are used as a tool to support the acquisition of complex information into memory (Yunkporta, 2009). |
|
Learning occurs in micro-communities within a school, with multi-age classrooms where students spend 3 years with their teachers, establishing a strong sense of community and strong relationships between students and teachers, and students and their peers. |
Links to community are important with learning being group oriented, with motivation for learning being inclusion in a community (Yunkaporta, 2009). |
|
Cosmic education is the framework within the Montessori method which “considers each aspect of a person in relation to every other living form on the planet; it includes the history of the world, of the cosmos, and of our role in it” (Murray, 2023). |
Aboriginal pedagogies are ‘ecological’, and learning is situated in a way that helps the learner understand their ancestral and personal relationship to land and space (Yunkaporta, 2009). |
|
Montessori teachers see their role and even refer to themselves as ‘guides’ who support and invite children to learn, and who teach ‘side by side’ with learners. |
Teachers should take a cooperative approach with students, and less of an authoritarian, control or compliance-based approach where the teacher holds the power in the classroom (Queensland Department of Education, 2016). |
|
Students in a Montessori classroom have autonomy to select the work they want to do, are given the freedom to explore learning at their own pace and within their own timeframe, and to choose whether they work independently or with a partner or group; in this way the learning journey is highly individualised and non-linear. |
Aboriginal students can have a preference for learning that is indirect, in an environment that allows for the creative potential of the student to emerge, and favouring diverse viewpoints; in this way, learning is not linear, but rather invites the learner to express their own needs and shape their own identity (Yunkaporta, 2009). |
Future Directions and Commitment to Inclusive Education
While the Montessori pedagogical approach has a running start ahead of many Western approaches to teaching and learning, there is more work to be done. Reviewing historical influences on education helps us to understand the resulting policies which relate to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This will also help us shape the next steps in our journey as educators and to realise our role in achieving the goals of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, as articulated by Dean Parkin, Quandamooka man, of “weaving the ancient and modern identities of Australia into a more complete whole” (TEDx Talks, 2018).
References
Murray, A., Ahlquist, E. M. T., McKenna, M., & Debs, M. (Eds.). (2023). The Bloomsbury handbook of Montessori education. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Stewart, J. (2002). The Relevance of the ‘Learning Styles Debate’ for Australian Indigenous Students in Mainstream Education. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 30(2), 13–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1326011100001435
TEDx Talks. (2018, November 13). The Uluru Statement From The Heart – an idea whose time has come | Dean Parkin | TEDxCanberra [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB-31jD4XcA
Queensland Department of Education (2016, November 15). Uncle Ernie Grant shares how to acknowledge Indigenous holistic views of the world [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvvNITzxiaA
Victoria. Department of Education, Employment and Training (DEET). (2001). Yalca: a partnership in education and training for the new millennium: Koorie education policy.
Yunkaporta, T. (2009). Aboriginal pedagogies at the cultural interface (Doctoral dissertation, James Cook University).
Yunkaporta, T., & Kirby, M. (2011). Yarning up Indigenous pedagogies: A dialogue about eight Aboriginal ways of learning, in R Bell, G Milgate & N Purdie (eds.) Two Way Teaching and Learning: Toward culturally reflective and relevant education (pp. 205-213). ACER Press.
Embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in your classroom now.
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