Maria Montessori is indisputably a major thinker in education. Marion O'Donnell's volume offers the most coherent account of Montessori's educational thought. This work is divided into: intellectual biography, critical exposition of Montessori's work, and, the reception and influence of Montessori's work and the relevance of the work today.This is a major international reference series providing comprehensive accounts of the work of seminal educational thinkers from a variety of periods, disciplines and traditions. It is the most ambitious and prestigious such project ever published - a definitive resource for at least a generation. The thinkers include: Aquinas, Aristotle, Bourdieu, Bruner, Dewey, Foucault, Freire, Holt, Kant, Locke, Montessori, Neill, Newman, Owen, Peters, Piaget, Plato, Rousseau, Steiner, Vygotsky, West and Wollstonecraft.