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Today, Montessori education is an established system with materials, training programs and schools all over the world. You might think a visionary designed it at her desk and then put it into practice. That is not how it happened. The system grew out of a pattern Maria Montessori discovered in everyday life with children. That is exactly what Henry Mintzberg and James A. Waters mean when they speak of Emergent Strategy.
A physician, not a teacher
Situation
Maria Montessori is born in 1870 in Chiaravalle, Italy. She first studies natural sciences and then medicine in Rome and is among the first women in Italy to practice as a physician. Around 1900, she works with children who are considered mentally disabled. She studies the work of the French physicians Jean Itard and Édouard Séguin and develops learning materials. According to her own account, some of these children then pass reading and writing tests designed for children of the same age without disabilities.
Link to the principle
Montessori does not bring a ready-made school concept but an attitude: observe closely, try things out, learn from the reactions. This attitude is the precondition for emergent strategy. If you see only your plan, you overlook the patterns that appear.
A mandate without a curriculum
Situation
On January 6, 1907, a house for preschool children, the Casa dei Bambini, opens in San Lorenzo, a poor district of Rome, in a housing complex owned by a Roman building company. The parents work during the day, and the children need to be looked after. Montessori takes charge. There is no set curriculum, but there is a room and there are children who need something.
Link to the principle
The mandate is modest: childcare. No one expects a new pedagogy. It is precisely this openness that creates room for observation. Montessori can experiment without having to defend a finished plan against reality.
Observing instead of prescribing
Situation
Montessori sets up a clean, bright, orderly room and provides materials from her earlier work. Then she observes how the children react and develops new materials based on what she sees. She finds that the children work for long periods with great concentration when they are allowed to choose for themselves, that they often repeat activities and that order arises without adults enforcing it. According to her reports, some children begin to write and read without being taught directly.
Link to the principle
This is the core of the principle. The strategy, that is, the basic approach of the method, emerges from action: Montessori tries things out, sees a pattern and builds on it. The children show what works. Montessori’s achievement lies in recognizing the pattern and taking it seriously, even when it contradicts the expectations of her time.
From pattern to method
Situation
In 1909, Montessori publishes her first book on the method she developed in the children’s houses. She begins training teachers and travels abroad. More children’s houses are established, first in Italy, then in many countries.
Link to the principle
Emergent strategy does not remain formless. At some point, what has emerged in action is recorded, passed on and thus becomes a deliberate strategy. Henry Mintzberg describes this cycle: patterns emerge, are recognized and are then deliberately pursued.
Where the comparison reaches its limits
Situation
Montessori was no improviser. She worked scientifically, planned her observations, kept precise records and held clear convictions about the dignity of the child. She developed her materials further in a targeted way.
Link to the principle
This shows an important side of the principle. Emergence usually happens within a framework. Mintzberg speaks of an umbrella strategy: the basic direction is fixed, and the details emerge along the way. Montessori knew what she was looking for, but not what she would find.
Key takeaways
Key lessons
- Observe closely before you set your plan in stone.
- Let the people you work for show you what works.
- Record patterns when they repeat.
- Set a clear basic stance and let the details grow.
- Turn what you have learned into a form others can pass on.
Summary
Maria Montessori did not come to San Lorenzo in 1907 with a finished method. She set up a room, provided materials and observed what the children did. From what she saw, she developed her pedagogy step by step and made it known in a book in 1909. Her story thus shows how strategy emerges in action: within a clear framework, but open to what reality teaches.
Sources
- Henry Mintzberg and James A. Waters: Of Strategies, Deliberate and Emergent. In: Strategic Management Journal 6 (1985), No. 3, pp. 257–272.
- Maria Montessori: Il metodo della pedagogia scientifica applicato all’educazione infantile nelle Case dei Bambini. Città di Castello: Lapi 1909.
