My research how parents and communities construct social meaning through their schools. It can be related to choosing a school in the context of school choice. My research has focused on the multiple framings and contested meanings of a distinctive pedagogy like Montessori, both in the US and globally, or how parents navigate school choice in Singapore and Germany.
This meaning can be constructed around historical memory in relation to nation-building and community-building, and I’ve researched how this operates both in the American South remembering the Civil Rights movement and in India around Gandhi’s assassination and Partition.
A third mode of examining the social meaning of schools is through research examining parents and students working toward school integration and broader social integration/racial justice. Current research with Molly Makris and Elise Castillo examines New York City school integration activists.
BOOKS
Mira Debs, Diverse Families, Desirable Schools: Public Montessori in the Era of School Choice. Harvard Education Press, 2019.
Co-editor, Handbook of Montessori Education, Bloomsbury, UK, forthcoming 2022.
PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
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Debs, M. & HS Cheung. 2021. “Structure-reinforced privilege: Educational Inequality in the Singaporean primary school choice system.” Comparative Education. 57 (3) 398-416.
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Apple, L. & M. Debs. 2021. ““I am not a guinea pig”: An Analysis of Parental Advocacy in the German Detracking Movement.” Research in Comparative International Education. 16(1): 64-82.
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Golann, Joanne, Mira Debs and Anna Weiss. 2019. “’To be Strict on your own’: Black and Latinx parents evaluate discipline in urban choice schools,” American Journal of Educational Research
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Debs, Mira and Katie Brown. 2017. “Students of Color and Public Montessori Schools: A Review of the Literature.” Journal of Montessori Research.
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Debs, Mira. 2016. “Racial and Economic Diversity of Public Montessori Schools.” Journal of Montessori Research. 2(2):15-34.
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Debs, Mira. 2013. “The Suffering of Symbols: Giotto Frescoes and the Cultural Trauma of Objects.” Cultural Sociology 7(4):479-94.
Sage Prize Finalist for the top 4 Cultural Sociology articles (of 27 published in 2013.)
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Debs, Mira. 2013. “The Uses of Cultural Trauma: Gandhi’s Assassination, Partition and Secular Nationalism in Post-Independence India,” Nations and Nationalism, 19(4): 635-653.
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Debs, Mira and Eric Woods. 2013. “Toward a Cultural Sociology of Nationalism” and Co-editor with Eric T. Woods, Special issue on Cultural Sociology for Nations and Nationalism, 19(4): 607-614.
MEDIA
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Mira Debs, August 3, 2019. “Global Adaptation: Montessori in India.” Harvard Education Press Blog.
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Jay Matthews, August 2, 2019 “No Excuses make no excuses for updating their approach.” Washington Post.
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Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider, May 2, 2019, “Different Strokes for Different Folks?” Have you Heard podcast.
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Matt Barnum, April 30, 2019, “What does Montessori mean in the age of school choice? Researcher Mira Debs explains.” Chalkbeat.
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Nora Fleming, April 28, 2019, “A Public School Makes the Case for Montessori for All.” Edutopia.
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Emily Langhorne, March 27, 2019 “The Montessori Comeback.” Forbes.
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Debs, Mira, September 23, 2018, “Jeff Bezos and the Trap of the Charitable-Industrial Complex.” New York Times.
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Goldstein, Dana Sept. 21, 2018 “Jeff Bezos Cites a Big Number, but Few Details, in Plan for Low-Income Montessori Preschools.” New York Times.
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Meckler, Laura, Nov. 5, 2018 “Montessori, long a favorite for wealthy families, struggles to expand its reach.” Washington Post.
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Stacy Khadaroo, 2018. “More than ‘beautiful words’: How one school fights to keep racial equity.” Christian Science Monitor.
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Michele Molnar. 2018. “Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Announces $2 Billion Philanthropic Fund for Preschools, Homeless Families.” Ed Week Market Brief.
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Sarah Sparks, 2016. “In Charter School Era, Montessori Model Flourishes.” Ed Week.