Waldorf Teacher Education: Historical origins, its current situation as a higher education training course and the case of Spain

Abstract

Waldorf schools base their pedagogical practice on the ideas of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), namely on the esoteric philosophy of anthroposophy he founded in 1913. This paper discusses how Waldorf school teachers are trained. The paper starts by analyzing the first training course Steiner taught for the teachers at the Freie Waldorfschule, the first Waldorf School, founded in Stuttgart in 1919. It then goes on to examine the structure and theoretical underpinnings of Waldorf teacher training today. Finally, it looks at the specific case of the “Training Course in Waldorf Pedagogy and Humanistic-Artistic Education” given to Waldorf teachers in Spain. The main conclusion reached is that the structure of teacher training for Waldorf schools consists of giving an initial theoretical approach to anthroposophy, which lays the groundwork on which to base pedagogical practice. This involves having teachers integrate the categories of anthroposophy into their training process before acquiring the knowledge and skills required for carrying out their teaching endeavors.http://dx.doi.org/10.15572/ENCO2015.9