AMI Talks – The Global Path of Montessori
6 January marks the opening of the first Casa dei Bambini in San Lorenzo, Rome. At AMI we traditionally mark that day – and one of our newer traditions is that we host an AMI Talk.
Since that first 1907 Casa, the Montessori principles and ideas have caught on in the world and found their way to many communities on all continents. Today we see that Maria Montessori’s ideas are as relevant as ever and applicable to children everywhere, regardless of their background, culture or living conditions.
In our 6 January 2023 AMI Talk, we featured three speakers who each documented the amazing spread of Montessori. Victoria Johnson, PhD in Global Family, Health and Wellbeing spoke about her research into the introduction of Montessori in communities, prompted by a variety of reasons, most of which can associate with the Educateurs sans Frontières banner.
Agnese Fontana, producer and author, and Rosario di Girolamo, cross-media creative director, delighted the audience by showing this spread across cultures, sharing highlights from their filming of Montessori children at work in different countries.
CLICK THE LINKS TO LISTEN TO THE RECORDING.
Speakers
Victoria Johnson
Victoria is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she coordinates research, evaluation, and implementation of the Responsive Equitable System for Preparing Early Childhood Teachers (RESPECT) across Nebraska project. She is passionate about Montessori and community-based, culturally-relevant education —pursuing creative solutions for education that address holistic developmental growth among underserved populations. In addition to her graduate studies in education and human development, Victoria holds Montessori credentials at primary and elementary levels. Her most recent research work is focused on the diverse application of Montessori education and its potential in addressing societal and developmental needs of children and communities.
Agnese Fontana
Producer and author, Agnese graduated from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in 1985. She has produced films in competition at major international festivals such as Venice, Locarno, Berlin, Seattle and Sundance. Since 2011 she is the CEO and founder of Le TALEE, an independent production company which mainly produces art-house films and documentaries. From 2015 to 2019 she was President of Doc/it, the Italian Documentary Association. From 2018 to 2020 she was director of IDS-Italian Doc Screenings. She produced, among others, "Cesare must die" by the Taviani brothers, winner of the 2012 Berlinale Golden Bear, and "Red sky at night", winner of the Biografilm 2022 Audience Award and the Ucca Award. In 2020 together with Maurizio Sciarra, she conceived the Montessori Road project, which was the starting point for the production of the documentary “Help me do it by myself. The Montessori idea” focused on the Montessori movement in different cultures.
Rosario di Girolamo
Agnese is joined by her partner Rosario Di Girolamo who is a Crossmedia Creative Director and Producer. Responsible for creating the Montessori Road website and integrating it with all social media channels their production and writing team is providing content for. Rosario built up many years of experience in IT, marketing and communications before joining the Le TALEE production company.
