Mara Krechevsky
A senior researcher at Project Zero, Mara works with teachers, students, and researchers in the U.S. and abroad to create powerful learning environments for children and adults. She is especially passionate about supporting learning in groups for children and adults and making thinking and learning visible, and has been deeply inspired by educators from the Reggio Emilia preschools in Italy.
PZ Work
Mara currently directs The Good Starts Project, a qualitative research initiative exploring how young children conceptualize “I, we, they, and it” in different cultures. She previously directed Making Learning Visible, a 15-year investigation into documenting and assessing individual and group learning pre-K-12, based on collaborative research with educators from Reggio Emilia, Italy. Her other research projects include Pedagogy of Play, Citizen-Learners: A 21st Century Curriculum and Pedagogical Framework, Inspiring Agents of Change, and Children Are Citizens.
Mara has authored or co-authored nine books and 50 articles and book chapters, including A Pedagogy of Play: Supporting Playful Learning in Classrooms and Schools (Project Zero, 2023) and Visible Learners: Promoting Reggio-Inspired Approaches in All Schools (Jossey-Bass, 2013).
With Carla Rinaldi and Claudia Giudicci, Mara edited Making Learning Visible: Children as Individual and Group Learners (Reggio Children, 2001, translated into seven languages); and with Howard Gardner and David Feldman, she edited Project Zero Frameworks for Early Childhood Education, a three-volume series (Teachers College Press, 1998; translated into six languages).
Beyond PZ
She also works on Educating for American Democracy, a cross-ideological initiative to strengthen K-12 civics and history education in the U.S.
Fun Facts
Mara is a Project Zero limericist and the author of Project Zero Limericks: 1987-2025. At the age of 25, she dropped out of Harvard Law School and never looked back. She is married to a musician, Steven Lipsitt, and has two adult children—Daria and Caleb.
Where to Find Mara
Mara splits her time between the Project Zero offices at Harvard and her home in Brookline.
Mara's Projects and Publications
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