Research

My research focuses on how parents and communities construct social meaning through their schools, and how these choices have a macro impact on school segregation. 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 Denmark, Singapore and Germany.

Spencer – funded research with Molly Makris and Elise Castillo examined New York City school integration activists during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A collaboration with Alisha Butler, Allison Roda and Molly Makris examines parental activists supporting local public schools in several global cities.

BOOKS

Mira Debs, Diverse Families, Desirable Schools: Public Montessori in the Era of School Choice. Harvard Education Press, 2019.

Co-editor, Bloomsbury Handbook of Montessori Education, Bloomsbury, UK, 2023.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Debs, M., Kafka, J., Makris, M. V., & Roda, A. (2023). Happiness-Oriented Parents: An Alternative Perspective on Privilege and Choosing Schools. American Journal of Education, 129(2).

Debs, M., de Brouwer, J., Murray, A. K., Lawrence, L., Tyne, M., & von der Wehl, C. (2022). Global Diffusion of Montessori Schools: A Report From the 2022 Global Montessori Census. Journal of Montessori Research, 8(2), 1-15.

Debs, M, (2022) “Montessori in India: Adapted, Competing and Contested Framings 1915-2021.” History of Education Quarterly. 62 (4) 387-417.

Debs, M., Makris, M. V., Castillo, E., Rodriguez, A., Smith, A., & Ingall, J. S. (2022). “Building civic capacity: The history and landscape of NYC integration activism, 2012–2021.” Teachers College Record.

Castillo, E., Makris, M. V., & Debs, M. (2021). “Integration Versus Meritocracy? Competing Educational Goals During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Aera Open, 7.

Debs, M. & HS Cheung. (2021). “Structure-reinforced privilege: Educational Inequality in the Singaporean primary school choice system.” Comparative Education. 57(3): 398-416.

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.

Golann, J., M. Debs & A. Weiss. (2019). “’To be Strict on your own’: Black and Latinx parents evaluate school discipline” American Education Research Journal. 56(5): 1896-1929.

Debs, M. & K. Brown. (2016). “Students of Color and Public Montessori Schools: A Review of the Literature” (with Katie Brown), Journal of Montessori Research. 3(1): 1-15.

Debs, M. (2016). “Racial and Economic Diversity of Public Montessori Schools.” Journal of Montessori Research, 2016: 2(2):15-34.

Debs, M. (2014). “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.) 

Debs, M. (2013). “The Uses of Cultural Trauma: Gandhi’s Assassination, Partition and Secular Nationalism in Post-Independence India,” Nations and Nationalism,19(4): 635-653.

Woods, E. & M. Debs. (2013) “Toward a Cultural Sociology of Nationalism” and co-editor, Special issue on Cultural Sociology for Nations and Nationalism, 19(4): 607-614.

PUBLIC WRITING

SELECT MEDIA INTERVIEWS AND MENTIONS