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

Abstract

In the wake of globalisation, multiculturalism, and the ‘marketisation’ of schools the education‐for‐citizenship question in relation to state and independent schools seems increasingly relevant. This paper is based on a comparison of beliefs and values related to civic and moral issues among students in Swedish mainstream and Steiner Waldorf schools. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative analyses of survey data from a strategic sampling of schools. The student sample was a cohort of students aged 15–16 and 18–19 years. In the survey students were confronted with problems to which there were no given or correct answers. Responses were analysed inductively and thematically. The most striking result of the comparisons concerned the differences between the younger and the older students in their attitudes to social and moral questions. In mainstream schools, the interest and engagement in social and moral questions were approximately the same in both age groups, but in Steiner Waldorf schools the older students more frequently expressed interest and engagement in social and moral questions. The Steiner Waldorf students also more frequently showed positive attitudes already in grade 9. This result raises the question whether the pedagogical approach of Steiner Waldorf schools has more positive effects on moral and civic engagement.