This book offers a comprehensive exploration of Steiner or Waldorf pedagogy and practice in schools. Drawing on key research, it traces the origins of Steiner education from the original Waldorf school and shows how this approach has since been adapted and applied in educational settings around the world. Outlining the educational philosophy of Steiner education, the book considers its unique features, such as its commitment to a pedagogical anthropology that takes the whole developing human being into account – body, mind and spirit – and the developmental approach that arises out of this. It sets out the specific curriculum and teaching approach alongside vignettes of teaching and learning situations adopted in Steiner educational settings to show how the approach works in practice. Offering a critical perspective on this teaching style, Rawson examines the contributions that Steiner education has made in different cultures and looks towards future developments in China and other Asian countries. Considering all aspects of Steiner education, this book is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the fundamental elements of this approach and its continuing relevance within the educational landscape.

A Passionate Schooling provides a clear, scholarly overview of the key ideas behind Steiner Waldorf education. It examines how Rudolf Steiner developed his ideas in the context of his life and the culture in which he lived. A Passionate Schooling focuses on Steiner's insights as they relate to: - the nature of the human being; - freedom and the ideals of education and social renewal; - new perspectives on child development; - the evolution of consciousness, - and the transformation of the self. It also explores the concepts of goodness, beauty and truth as ideals in education, as well as the adaptability of the Steiner Curriculum. It re-interprets Steiner's ideas in the context of post-modernist thought and contemporary challenges and practices. A Passionate Schooling is a revealing text for students of education, teachers and parents. More at www.passionateschooling.com

This book marks the centenary of the first Waldorf School, established by Rudolf Steiner in Stuttgart in 1919. With around 1,150 Waldorf Schools and over 1,800 Waldorf Kindergartens established in over 60 countries, this book examines and analyses how the initial impulse of Steiner education has grown over the last century to become a worldwide alternative movement in education. The author documents and compares the growth and development of Waldorf schools and Steiner-inspired educational institutions around the world, and determines the extent to which the original underpinning philosophy has been maintained against the contexts and challenges of contemporary global trends in education. Within such diverse international contexts, it is significant that the schools retain such a distinctive identity, and clearly redefine how ‘alternative education’ can be viewed. This comprehensive volume will be of interest and value to scholars of Steiner education and Waldorf schools as well as alternative education more widely.

This book shares the nomadology of Alys-we searching for the Ideal School around the world, sharing stories from places educating differently to traditional education, hoping to inspire readers to be part of a paradigm shift.

Have you ever wondered what the Steiner approach is all about, where it comes from and how it can be used to benefit the young children in your setting? Bringing the Steiner Waldorf Approach to your Early Years Setting is an excellent introduction to this philosophy. Janni Nicol clearly explains the history of Steiner Waldorf education, the role of play in learning and the key themes of rhythm, repetition and reverence with ideas for activities and resources. Practical examples throughout the book involving children of different ages in a wide variety of settings allow readers to see the connection between theory and practice. This new edition has been fully updated to include: Clear comparisons between Steiner practice and the revised Early Years Foundations Stage (EYFS) requirements A section on the growth of international Steiner settings Information on celebrating festivals and outdoor environments This convenient guide will help Early Years practitioners, students and parents to really understand what the Steiner Waldorf approach can bring to their practice and children.

This is a much needed source of information for those wishing to extend and consolidate their understanding of the Steiner Waldorf high scope approach. It will enable the reader to analyse its essential elements to early childhood and its relationship to quality early years practice.

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of Steiner or Waldorf pedagogy and practice in schools. Drawing on key research, it traces the origins of Steiner education from the original Waldorf school and shows how this approach has since been adapted and applied in educational settings around the world. Outlining the educational philosophy of Steiner education, the book considers its unique features, such as its commitment to a pedagogical anthropology that takes the whole developing human being into account - body, mind and spirit - and the developmental approach that arises out of this. It sets out the specific curriculum and teaching approach alongside vignettes of teaching and learning situations adopted in Steiner educational settings to show how the approach works in practice. Offering a critical perspective on this teaching style, Rawson examines the contributions that Steiner education has made in different cultures and looks towards future developments in China and other Asian countries. Considering all aspects of Steiner education, this book is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the fundamental elements of this approach and its continuing relevance within the educational landscape.

This open access book is the first of a two-volume series focusing on how people are being enabled or constrained to live well in today’s world, and how to bring into reality a world worth living in for all. The chapters offer unique narratives drawing on the perspectives of diverse groups such as: asylum-seeking and refugee youth in Australia, Finland, Norway and Scotland; young climate activists in Finland; Australian Aboriginal students, parents and community members; families of children who tube feed in Australia; and international research students in Sweden. The chapters reveal not just that different groups have different ideas about a world worth living in, but also show that, through their collaborative research initiative, the authors and their research participants were bringing worlds like these into being. The volume extends an invitation to readers and researchers in education and the social sciences to consider ways to foster education that realises transformed selves and transformed worlds: the good for each person, the good for humankind, and the good for the community of life on the planet. The book also includes theoretical chapters providing the background and rationale behind the notion of education as initiating people into ‘living well in a world worth living in'. An introductory chapter discusses the origins of the concept and the phrase.

Rudolf Steiner is one of the most controversially judged educational reformers of the twentieth century. Although he received little recognition within his field, his educational thought has had a sustained and profound influence, not only in the development of the Waldorf Schools, but also in healing, socially therapeutic work, psychosomatic medicine, biological-dynamic agriculture, corporate organisation, fine arts, and architecture. Heiner Ullrich paints a concise and well-grounded portrait of the creator of the anthroposophic doctrine and Waldorf pedagogy. The text describes a wide arc from the intellectual biography of Rudolf Steiner, across his basic ideas on human development and education, to include discussion of the organisation, curriculum, methods and success of the Waldorf Schools.