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The Possibility of an Unbiased History of Steiner/Waldorf Education?

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MiriamGebhardt, Rudolf Steiner – Ein moderner Prophet (München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2011), 364 pp., €22,99 (hb), ISBN 9783421044730.
SylvaLiebenwein, HeinerBarz and RandollDirk, Bildungserfahrungen an Waldorfschulen: Empirische Studie zu Schulqualität und Lernerfahrungen (Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, 2012), 256 pp., €37,37 (pb), ISBN 9783531185088.
RodParker-Rees, ed., Meeting the child in Steiner kindergartens: an exploration of beliefs, values and practices (New York: Routledge, 2011), 152 pp., £25,99 (pb), ISBN 9780415603928.

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Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 October 2015

PIETER DHONDT ,
NELE VAN DE VIJVER  and
PIETER VERSTRAETE
PIETER DHONDT
Affiliation:
University of Eastern Finland, Department of Geographical and Historical Studies, P.O. Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland, tel. +358 50 5988192; pieter.dhondt@uef.fi
NELE VAN DE VIJVER
Affiliation:
CVO Panta Rhei de Avondschool, Schoonmeersstraat 26, 9000 Ghent, Belgium, tel. +32 9335 2222; nele.vandevijver@avondschool.be
PIETER VERSTRAETE
Affiliation:
Research Unit Education, Culture and Society, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven (Belgium), Andreas Vesaliusstraat 2, Bus 3761, 3000 Leuven, Belgium, tel. +32 16 325882; pieter.verstraete@ppw.kuleuven.be
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Extract

In many respects, and certainly with regard to his educational ideas, Rudolf Steiner was a child of his time. Trust in the natural goodness of the child that became more and more central, belief in an evolutionist development of both individuals and humanity as a whole, the emphasis on a holistic education realised through a community of teachers, parents and children; all of these were ideas that Steiner shared with other key figures of the progressive education movement, which began in the late nineteenth century. In line with the existing historiography on progressive education (Reformpädagogik) in general, historical research on the figure of Steiner, and particularly on the development of the schools and the educational system named after him, is characterised by paying considerable attention to the years of foundation in the interwar period on the one hand and to current practices on the other, in that way largely neglecting the developments during the second half of the twentieth century.

Type
Review Article
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 24 , Special Issue 4: Urban Societies in Europe , November 2015 , pp. 639 - 649
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

1 Or named after the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart for whose workers’ children Steiner established the first school. In the literature the terms ‘Steiner education’ and ‘Waldorf education’ are used interchangeably. Except for in the title, we have chosen to use consistently the term ‘Waldorf education’ when writing about Steiner's educational ideas and/or achievements.

2 Oelkers, Jürgen, Reformpädagogik. Eine kritische Dogmengeschichte (Weinheim/München: Juventa, 1996)Google Scholar and Depaepe, Marc, Simon, Frank and Van Gorp, Angelo, ‘The canonization of Ovide Decroly as a “saint” of the New Education’, History of Edcuation Quarterly, 43, 2 (2003), 224–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Van Gorp, Angelo, Tussen mythe en wetenschap. Ovide Decroly (1871–1932) (Leuven: Acco, 2005)Google Scholar.

4 The German quotations are translated by the authors.

5 See, for example, Carlgren, Frans, Erziehung zur Freiheit. Die Pädagogik Rudolf Steiners (Stuttgart: Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 2009)Google Scholar. The central idea of anthroposophy, as founded by Steiner, is the postulation of the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world that is accessible by direct experience through inner development.

6 See Imelman, Jan Dirk and van Hoek, P.B.H., Hoe vrij is de Vrije School? Een analyse van de antroposofische pedagogiek (Nijkerk: Intro, 1983)Google Scholar or Wagemann, Paul-Albert and Kayser, Martina, Wie frei ist die Waldorfschule? (München: Heyne, 1996)Google Scholar.

7 The bulk of other books published on this occasion confirms the general historiographic trend – a focus on the figure of Steiner and current anthroposophic practices.

8 Lindenberg, Christophe, Rudolf Steiner – Eine Biographie. Taschenbuchausgabe, Sonderausgabe zum 150. Geburtstag Rudolf Steiners (Stuttgart: Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 2011)Google Scholar.

9 More than 1,000 independent Waldorf schools, 2,000 kindergartens and 650 centres for special education located in sixty different countries all over the world, together with an even larger number of non-recognised Waldorf-based schools, academies and homeschooling environments. See Waldorf World List (Berlin: Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners / Dornach: Pädagogische Sektion am Goetheanum / Stuttgart: Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen, 2013).

10 This involves communities where people with and without disabilities live together in the spirit of anthroposophy.

11 Hamre, James S., Continuity and change: 100 years–Waldorf College (1903–2003) (Iowa: Waldorf College, 2002)Google Scholar. The addendum on ‘Waldorf Pioneers’, which contains twelve brief biographical sketches of deceased persons for whom buildings have been named, is revealing in this connection.

12 Hofrichter, Hansjörg, Waldorf: The Story Behind the Name (Stuttgart: Pädagogische Forschungsstelle beim Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen, 2002)Google Scholar.

13 Oberman, Ida, Fidelity and Flexibility in Waldorf Education, 1919–1998 (Stanford: Stanford University, School of Education, 1998)Google Scholar.

14 De Coster, Tom, Simon, Frank and Depaepe, Marc, ‘Alternative education in Flanders, 1960–2000: transformation of knowledge in a neo-liberal context’, Paedagogica Historica. International Journal of the History of Education, 45, 4–5 (2009), 645–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Cuban, Larry, How Teachers Taught: Constancy and Change in American Classrooms, 1880–1990 (New York: Teachers College Press, 1993)Google Scholar and Tyack, David and Tobin, William, ‘The grammar of schooling: why it has been so hard to change?’, American Educational Research Journal, 31 (1994): 435–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Dahlin, Bo, ‘A state-independent education for citizenship? Comparing beliefs and values related to civic and moral issues among students in Swedish mainstream and Steiner Waldorf schools’, Journal of Beliefs and Values: Studies in Religion and Education, 31, 2 (2010), 165–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar.