This review is available to download as a PDF here.

Hardback: £115, 212pp., ISBN 9780367333973

Paperback: £24.99, 212pp., ISBN 9780367333980

eBook: £22.49, ISBN 9780429319679

This is a good academic introduction to the ideas behind the worldwide movement of Steiner Waldorf education. The author, Martyn Rawson, describes his own position regarding Waldorf pedagogy as that of a critical insider. While recognising something both important and challenging in Waldorf educational theory, he also notes that its practice is “not always as good as it could and should be” (p. 6). There is for example a certain lack of awareness of basic assumptions, and of analysis, reflection and evaluation. His book could help Waldorf teachers to develop these aspects of their work.

Any English-speaking person who needs a thorough and informative presentation of the “theoretical” principles that guide teaching practice in Waldorf schools – or that should guide it¹ – would also do well to read this book. I put theoretical in quotation marks because here we are not dealing with theory in the common academic sense. Steiner’s Anthroposophy – his spiritual anthropology – goes beyond this kind of theory and includes imaginative, inspirational and intuitive dimensions of cognition. His insights into human nature and development (onto- as well as phylo-genetically) are not based only on scientific empirical observations, but also on his own suprasensory perceptual abilities. As Rawson puts it, Steiner’s extraordinary perceptual capacities made “all three dimensions of the human being – body, psyche, and spirit – legitimate fields of inquiry” (p. 18). He saw the fundamental task of education as helping the growing child “to integrate her soul/spiritual part into her body”, to incarnate in the most pregnant sense of the word, so that “the soul emerges and emancipates itself from the living body” (ibid.) and the self gradually evolves into the locus of free action.

The book is organised in Parts with two levels of subheadings. Part 1, following the introduction, is a more or less intellectual biography of Steiner’s life and how his educational ideas developed out of his wide range of studies and experiences. Among the latter was his work as a private tutor for both children and university students. The discourse is free of any hagiographic tendencies while at the same time avoiding the trap of contextualism (i.e.  reducing most of Steiner’s important ideas to external influences). Steiner’s epistemology, its relation to his educational views and to his Freiheitsphilosophie, as well as his Anthroposophy (for example, the constitution of the human soul as an organic unity of thought, feeling and will), and social philosophy (the need for social reform based on the relative autonomy of state, culture, and economy) are outlined as well as can be expected in a book of this kind. These are after all subjects that lend themselves to almost infinite discussions.

Part 2 is entitled “Generative principles of teaching and learning in Waldorf education” and contains a presentation and discussion of just that. Each generative principle – thirteen in all – is described in detail. Each principle is further related to skills that teachers may need in order to realise it in practice, as well as to possible research questions that could be followed up in order to establish an empirical basis for a particular principle. Among the generative principles are the following:

• Learning is a rhythmical process;
• Block teaching strengthens learning dispositions;
• A phenomenological approach enables the organic growth of knowledge;
• The teaching must be artistic.

Here, I would simply add that one must envision these principles as belonging together in an organic whole. They should, for example, all be seen in the context of Steiner’s Anthroposophy, otherwise they risk becoming mere abstractions.

Steiner described how rhythmical processes of learning are – or can be – played out on several levels: daily, weekly, monthly and annually. On the daily level, time before noon is usually spent on the more “heady”, informative and theoretical subjects such as science (natural and social); whereas the afternoons are devoted to practical and bodily activities like gymnastics or handicrafts. The “forgetting” that takes place in sleep is also seen as part of the learning process because the mind then subconsciously processes what has been experienced during the day. This has been observed in neurological research, which Steiner anticipated. Rawson goes rather deeply into this area – in fact sometimes so deeply that it is hard to see the connection to the specifically rhythmic aspect of learning.

The block teaching principle is related to the weekly level of rhythm in the way that the morning lessons usually deal with the same subject for 3-4 weeks at a time. This creates a continuity of the time spent on one subject and provides the opportunity to both widen and deepen the content of learning. This possibility is sadly lacking in ordinary schools, where administrative needs seem to rule over pedagogical ones, and children are forced to jump from one kind of subject to something completely different with just a short break in between. Steiner maintained that this fragmented scheduling practice has a seriously damaging effect on children’s hearts and minds because it thoroughly undermines their powers of concentration (cf. p. 98) (nowadays our smartphones seem to undo whatever is left of these powers).

This immersion in one field of study for a longer period of time is intended to create a disposition to look at the world from various points of view: geographically, historically, chemically, etc. However, rather than producing future historians or geographers, the purpose is for students to see that the world can be approached and experienced from different points of view, and to learn to apply these approaches by asking specific questions based on specific concepts. For this generative principle Rawson suggests empirical research on the effects of block teaching in various age groups, or on the quality of the developed dispositions, knowledge and skills.

The principle of the phenomenological approach to learning is discussed at some length, encompassing several different aspects. One of them is that, ideally, all learning (and teaching) should begin with a sense-perceptual, lived-body experience or encounter with a phenomenon that is central to the particular subject. The phenomenon should be carefully observed, contemplated and described. Various observations should be related to one another, gradually letting a more or less complex conception emerge. The relevant scientific concept(s) should not be introduced until the very end; ideally they appear almost of themselves, out of the experiences, observations, and descriptions. This enables knowledge to grow organically, and not in a rigid encyclopaedic way.

In the discussion of this principle Rawson also introduces Gert Biesta’s notion of subjectification, which draws on the work of Emmanuel Levinas, as well as similar notions in the writings of Käte Meyer-Drawe, the German researcher on the phenomenology of children’s experience and development. The reasoning here is fine in itself, but I find it a bit irrelevant to the phenomenological principle of learning as it is expressed and deployed in Waldorf pedagogy. Steiner’s pedagogical phenomenology is above all Goethean, focused on outer phenomena of nature; Biesta’s subjectification deals with something rather different: it is basically an existential notion, which leads on to an ethical one. It is about waking up to oneself as a unique individual; an awakening that takes place in the meeting with ‘the other’ in their complete ‘otherness’. In this encounter one also realises one’s responsibility for the other, for how one relates to their otherness.

This is a theme that to my mind would fit in better in Part 3, which is about “communities of learning”. The term “community of learning” refers of course to Lave and Wenger’s well-known notion. The author fruitfully deploys this – and Rogoff’s metaphor of apprenticeship – to characterise what goes on not only in the Waldorf classes but also in the collegium of the teachers. Here there are also a number of generative principles (five to be specific), including the fact that Waldorf school classes as well as the collegium of teachers are communities of learning.  Steiner’s original idea was that schools should have a “republican” leadership, based as much as possible on consensus decisions of the whole collegium. This leads to more intense forms of interaction between the teachers and highlights the “community” aspect of their work. As for the pupils, Waldorf classes are characterized by “many shared experiences, assumptions, expectations, ways of talking” and have their own “narratives, rituals, and ways of being and becoming” (p. 132).

One of the principles in Part 3 is that “becoming a Waldorf teacher is a process of transformative learning” (p. 152). This involves self-development and continuing professional development. The important thing is what this actually means in practice. “Self-development” refers primarily to meditative and contemplative practices recommended by Steiner as suited for teachers. Professional development relates to the development of pedagogical intuition and tact, as well as engaging in exercises aiming to bring forth powers of observation and recall, focus and flexibility in thinking, and skills in “diagnostic assessment” of students (but diagnoses in a medical sense are seldom used). Thus, the bar is set rather high, but teachers and teacher students are not expected to become full-fledged in all these respects. The idea is instead to give you something to work with and strive for throughout your whole career, and this work can also become an inner source of meaning.

Aesthetic schooling, working with different kinds of art, such as painting, drawing, music, etc., is an important element in transformative learning as understood in Waldorf teacher education. In artistic work, one learns to experience living processes and to understand phenomena holistically. One also learns a language that can describe invisible qualities, the imponderables of both natural and social processes. Attending to these qualities, such as “the atmosphere” in the classroom and how it changes, is a significant aspect of Waldorf teachers’ work.

All this is adds up to a “tall order” and questions may arise as to how far it has been realized in practice. Unfortunately, very little research has been carried out in this area, so – as the author notes – no judgment can be made about the results of the many, and very different, Waldorf teacher educations that exist throughout the world today.

In Part 4, Rawson discusses the relations between Waldorf education and the academy. This includes the reception problems, the critique and criticisms, the specific positions taken by individual researchers, and empirical studies on alumni and pupils in schools. The reception problems are almost unsurmountable, considering the spiritual and esoteric character of some of Steiner’s ideas. Steiner has long been anathema to the mainstream academy. The situation may perhaps change a bit since esoteric ideas and traditions have now become a legitimate and growing research area, mainly through the works of Wouter Hanegraaff and Antoine Faivre. However, the studies carried out are seldom if ever motivated by a real desire to enter into the esotericist mode of understanding the world: one keeps the ideational content at arm’s length and merely describes it. There are some Waldorf educators who argue that the Waldorf movement should do the same with Anthroposophy, its esoteric and spiritual “ground”: recognize that it is there but keep a distance from it. Steiner’s utterance that Waldorf schools are not Weltanschauungsschulen (worldview schools) is taken as reason for this stance. Waldorf schools are not there in order to serve anthroposophical parents who wish their children to learn about Anthroposophy. It is for any and all children. Others maintain that even so, Waldorf pedagogy cannot be really understood without a grounding in the Anthroposophical view of the human being.

Part 5, finally, is about Waldorf schools in the world. Up until the fall of the Iron curtain, Waldorf schools were few and rather little known. After the Wall came down, their numbers have continually grown and they now exist in all parts of the world. That in itself is perhaps telling us something about what many people feel their children need in our present planetary situation and global consumerist culture. And this in turn should be reason enough for more educational researchers to pay them some attention.

As I said in the beginning, this book is very informative in its penetration of the complex ideas that constitutes the grounds for Waldorf pedagogical practice(s). Furthermore, it opens up the relatively unknown world of Waldorf schools by pointing out many mainstream (more or less) academic theories and perspectives, from which Waldorf pedagogy can also – at least partly – be understood.

My guess is that the author wants to point out possible areas of intersection, where mainstream educational discourse could hook on to ideas and concepts of Waldorf educational thinking and vice versa, thereby initiating a dialogue between them. It might also be that he wants Waldorf teachers to realize that they are not alone in thinking the way they do about certain educational issues, which could reduce the distance between them and more common academic discourse. On the premise that one reads the book reflectively and with an open mind I think Rawson may well have achieved these aims.

Endnotes

¹There are signs that for various reasons Waldorf teacher’s insight into the basic principles of Waldorf education have become more attenuated since the time of Steiner.