Montessori in Action Podcast
Engaging conversations with Montessori practitioners
Season 7, Ep. 5
Black Montessori Teachers, Collective Memory-Work, and Educational Sovereignty
Our episode this month is a conversation with Diedra Carlson about her recent presentation at the Montessori Research Collective Symposium where she shared a portion of her research Act III: Black Montessori Teachers, Collective Memory-Work, and Educational Sovereignty. This work is from her larger recent dissertation: The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Critical Fabulation, Raciolinguistic Resistance, and Liberation as Sensorial in Black Women’s Educational Lives.
For the full dissertation: Carlson, D. (2026). The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Critical Fabulation, Raciolinguistic Resistance, and Liberation as Sensorial in Black Women’s Educational Lives.
Diedra W. Carlson, Ph.D.
Diedra W. Carlson, Ph.D., is a Montessori-credentialed educator and researcher who taught in Saint Paul Public Schools for more than two decades, including at Crossroads Montessori and at former JJ Hill Montessori. A Montessori child herself, she holds AMS credentials for ages 6 to 12 and an MA in Elementary Education and Special Education. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota in 2026. Her research examines raciolinguistics and systemic equity, including her framework, Liberation as Sensorial, developed through Collective Memory-Work with Black women Montessori teachers. She received the 2017 Education Minnesota Human Rights Award and is active in Montessori public policy.