Dr. Ela Eckert

Coming from a teaching background, Dr. Ela Eckert has more than 25 years of experience in progressive schooling concepts. She was the driving force behind the initiation and founding of a Montessori school for 6 – 15 year old children in Uppsala/ Sweden, where she continued to work as principal and advisor. She has held different research positions at the Department of Education at Carl-von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg/ Germany for many years, specializing in Montessori pedagogy (in particular on the concept of ‘cosmic education’) and in school-development research as well as in questions of inclusion for students with special needs. Currently, she combines working as a senior expert and consultant for Montessori-schools in Germany and Sweden, also regularly lecturing on different aspects of Montessori pedagogy. She is the vice-president of the German Montessori Society and is editor for the German Montessori-magazine DAS KIND. As an author, co-author and editor, she has written many books in the field, among those are:

• Maria und Mario Montessoris Kosmische Erziehung – Vision und Konkretion. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt Verlag 2001

• The Montessoris in Adyar and Kodaikanal – Concretizing Cosmic Education in India, in: The NAMTA-Journal, 2005/2, p. 195 – 225 

• Eckert, Ela/ Fichten, Wolfgang (Hg): Schulbegleitforschung: Erwartungen – Ergebnisse – Wirkungen. Münster: Waxmann – Verlag 2005

• Eckert, Ela/ Waldschmidt, Ingeborg (Hg).: Kosmische Erzählungen in der Montessori-Pädagogik. Münster: LIT-Verlag 2007, 2. Aufl.

• Montessori Education in Exiled Tibetan Children’s Villages, in: AMI-Communications. Amsterdam: 2007/2, p. 60 – 75

• Eckert, Ela/ Hammerer, Franz (Hg.): Untersuchungen und Ansätze zur Weiterentwicklung der Montessori-Pädagogik in Österreich, Innsbruck: Studienverlag 2009

• Eckert, Ela/ Waldschmidt, Ingeborg (Hg): Inklusion: Menschen mit besonderen Bedürfnissen und Montessori-Pädagogik. Münster: LIT Verlag 2010