Projects funded by NORENSE
Book project - «Curiosity and wonder as driver for
pedagogy and education»
Markus Lindholm
NORENSE funding: 80.000 NOK in 2019
Background and motivation
The aim of the project is to publish a book tentatively entitled Curiosity based pedagogy (“Nysgjerrighetens pedagogikk”). The book will explore the cultural importance and value of wonder and curiosity, their historical roots and discuss how curiosity and joy of knowledge can be better maintained and promoted across school Publicationcurricula, from kindergarten to university. Wonder and curiosity are usually considered as human universalities, but this is hardly the case. Nearly all civilizations have been based on traditions, old truths and old Gods, where curiosity has been met with distrust, as reflected in the myth of Pandora or the expulsion from Paradise. Nonetheless, the ability to naïve wonder, curiosity and joy of wonder is essential for any human development, as it is for science and societal welfare, and for our developmental based western societies. Following Rudolf Steiner’s call to constantly renew the conceptual frames and terms of what he termed ‘deep pedagogy’, the book attempts to find new approaches and perspectives to what he circumscribes as ‘pedagogy’. Clearly, Waldorf pedagogy could be characterized as a pedagogy aiming to promote life-long curiosity and joy of knowledge. Principal agreement of publication is made with Universitetsforlaget, Oslo.
Research questions
The book will address the concern of bored students and analyse the reasons for why contemporary pedagogy tend to promote brain-tired students who take an indifferent position to knowledge. The book will hence explore how pedagogy, and especially science didactics, can be maintained in ways which renew the joy of knowledge, wonder and curiosity.
Sources, methods and theoretical perspectives
The book will be based on literature studies and relevant research. I have already published on the issue and have a fair overview over the relevant literature. Moreover, I have established contacts with the according research network, and in April 2019 I attended a conference on the pedagogical implications of wonder and curiosity in Amsterdam, where I gave a talk, as well. That event further improved my international network with co-researchers in the field.
The book will be research based and address core questions of deep pedagogy, and meet several issues of Waldorf pedagogy, as well, on how knowledge and science may connect to aesthetics, art exercises and practical crafts, and hence establish interfaces between knowledge, art and practical experience. By focussing on wonder and curiosity, the book will explore how school curricula can contribute to deepen knowledge and make learning a more personal conquest, hence maintaining a closer contact between knowledge, aesthetics, ethics and life practice.
PhD studies at Plymouth University: «Understanding and interpreting teacher-mediated education in Waldorf schools»
Helena Selsfors
NORENSE funding: 40.000 SEK in 2019
Background and motivation
The project aims to contribute to the debate about teachers’ profession and practice. In Waldorf schools the teacher is seen as a domain of knowledge, the one who mediates teaching through lecturing and story-telling. This practice differ from methods used in municipal schools where the teacher’s role often described as a facilitator for learning. The debate about the teachers’ role in education is on-going in many European countries.
The interest for this area awoke while working with my Master Thesis, where I interviewed young people about significant teachers. The participants strong emphasis on the teacher’s explicit and obvious role as a transmitter of knowledge awoke questions. Is there an unspoken, un-theorized “proven experience” about a balanced teacher-mediated education in Waldorfschools that might contribute to the debate?
The purpose of my study is to highlight the specific teacher-mediated teaching in waldorf schools, looking both at advantages and disadvantages, and to investigate if and how this could be theorized and connected to contemporary pedagogic research.
Research questions
How do waldorf teachers understand and interpret their own role and identity during teacher-mediated education? How could a conceptual framework be created to describe a modern teacher-mediated education where there is a balance between the teacher in focus – inhale – and the pupils in process – exhale?
Sources, methods and theoretical perspectives
The design of my project will be two-folded, initially I will use a phenomenological approach – investigating the participating waldorf teachers lived experience in the teacher-mediated knowledge situation. In step two, the findings from the phenomenological investigation will be looked upon through a theoretical and an epistemological lens. I will be using a conceptual framework constructed from contemporary pedagogical research in order to connect traditional waldorf pedagogy practice to established philosophies and perspectives on education. I will conduct semi-structured interviews with experienced waldorf teachers and do passive and active observations during morning lesson.
Development of project description for PhD-project at OsloMet: Musicality as potential for attachment in early childhood education
Ruhi Tyson
NORENSE funding: 20.000 SEK in 2019
Description
Article: Vocational education in Waldorf-contexts - extending our understanding of practical Bildung Within the German-speaking Steiner-education movement there has been significant developments after WWII where vocational education has been integrated into upper secondary school. The most well-known of these is the Hibernia school (founded by Klaus Fintelmann) which grew out of the apprenticeship-training at the Hibernia chemistry works in the 1950s. Other early developments were made at the Waldorf schools in Kassel, Nürnberg and Gröbenzell. The past 20 years have seen further development. Erhard Fucke and Michael Brater (together with associates) have also been responsible for extensive theoretical and empirical writing on the topic (Brater & Büchele 1985; Brater et al. 2011, 1988, 1987, 1986, 1985; Brater & Wagner 2011; Fucke 1996, 1981, 1977, 1976). However, apart from a Unesco study of the Hibernia school (Rist & Schneider 1979), none of this, as well as other writing, is available in English even though, at least quantitatively, this seems to be the most significant development and change of the original Steiner curriculum that has occurred in Germany and Switzerland.
One significant reason for this is most likely the large differences between vocational education systems internationally where the German context differs widely from the British, US and Nordic countries (encompassing a distinct portion of the non-German Steiner schools). These differences mean that any review of theory and practice in the field needs to take into account the international relevance of its point of view unless the aim is mainly descriptive and historical. The focus will therefore be on those aspects that have relevance outside of the German vocational system together with a brief introduction to the differences in vocational education and training (VET) in Britain, the US and the Nordic countries.
Following this introduction, brief outlines of the various initiatives will be given, including the above-mentioned and several others.
Thereafter a review of the theoretical literature as well as empirical research relating to VET and Steiner education will make out the main portion of the article. It will cover Fucke’s writing on practical Bildung as well as Fintelmann’s (1992, 1990, 1985), Brater’s and others’ divided into a theory and an empirical research section.
Finally the article will conclude with a discussion on the relevance of these developments for the international Steiner school movement and for researchers engaging in studies of the Steiner curriculum (or curricula which is perhaps a more accurate characterization).
Development of project description for PhD-project at OsloMet: Musicality as potential for attachment in early childhood education
Frode Thorjussen
NORENSE funding: 25.000 NOK in 2017
Background and motivation
The project seeks to explore the musical communication between toddlers and the caregivers in early childhood education and care centers (ECEC). Communicative musicality works as the theoretical foundation for the research. This theory is looking on musicality as an psychobiological predisposition for all kind of human interaction and communication. The term musicality referring to a very wide definition, which include all the multimodal and expressive communication between toddlers and caregivers. In earlier research, I have explored Daniel Stern’s concept of intersubjectivity and labelled it intermusicality based on the research findings and Stephen Malloch and Colwyn Trevarthen’s work on communicative musicality between mothers and infants.
Research questions
How do caregivers use communicative musicality as a tool for attachment in ECEC? Which musical qualities is at play in this practice? How can an active intermusicality strengthen the bonding and attachment between toddlers and caregivers in ECEC?
Sources, methods and theoretical perspectives
The design is based on a micro ethnographic approach. With the use of video observation and participatory observation I seek to explore the aesthetic dimension in the communication using the musical qualities as methodological lenses. The focus of the study is the caregiver’s interaction with children in ECEC from 1-3 years of age. The empirical data will be transcribed multimodal as a starting point for group conversation with the observed caregivers in ECEC. This conversation will also be part of the empirical data. From a Waldorf pedagogy viewpoint, it is relevant to seek new perspectives and arguments for an artistic and aesthetic education for teachers working with the toddlers. To explore the wider concept of musicality as an attachment theory will be this projects contribution. The PhD-project will be article-based and is supposed to be finalized in 2020.
Frode Thorjussen was accepted as a PhD student at OsloMET in June 2018, and decided to discontinue his project in 2019.
Research article: Tabula Rasa - The blackboard's performative
and unique materiality
Marius Wahl Gran
NORENSE funding: 37.000 NOK in 2017 (25.000 for writing the article and 12.000 for translation to English)
Background and
motivation
The
article will be about the use of the blackboards in Waldorf education
today. The blackboard still has a central position in the daily
practice of Waldorf teachers. I find the topic relevant, because it is
also connecting Steiner Waldorf education to research, practices, and
concepts on education in general and also making clear the connection
between art and pedagogy.
Research
questions
How
is the blackboard used by three teachers in Waldorf school classrooms?
What experiences and reflections do teachers have in using the
blackboard? Pupils perspectives and experiences are included only
indirectly through observation and interviews with teachers.
Sources, methods
and theoretical perspectives
Three
ideas structure this research project. The first is the teacher's
blackboard activity as a form of performance. The teacher is here
understood as a performer who performs chalkboard activity in front of
pupils. The chalkboard activity is here categorized under the term performance
(Benschnitt, 2007). Performance means that there is an interaction
between the artwork, the person performing, as an act of dancing,
singing, painting etc. and an audience. In this way, the borders
between artworks, performers and spectators can be diminished. If this
border is reduced, the audience can partake more actively in the
artwork. What characterizes a performance is that a unique one-time
event occurs in the presence of people.
In the second
category, the blackboard is understood as a surface where the teacher
makes site-specific images and texts. Here is the term unique
(Benjamin, 2013) is used as a category. Benjamin's concept is here
applied in relation to when teachers draw pictures by hand with chalk
on the blackboard. The concept highlights the uniqueness of the created
images and text representations in a specific educational context.
The
third category is based on the materiality of the blackboard and its
significance for the human relations to the blackboard in an
educational context. Aspects that the blackboard has in itself as a
blackboard and the materials related to this, such as sponge and chalk
are taken into account. Here is the concept focusing feature
(Sørensen, 2009) is central. The blackboard is in this
context
regarded as a focal point in the classroom, with its own voice.
Blackboard features, materials, and the relationships between
blackboard, teacher and pupils are therefore central in this context.
Teaching materials like blackboards are in this sense viewed as
invisible partners in educational activities.
The research questions are related to how three teachers are practising blackboard use when teaching at Waldorf schools. Video observation was chosen as one of the methods for the study. The starting point was to collect visual data material as a basis for further analysis and get a foundation to later conduct interviews with the teachers who were observed. The observed teachers taught in classes with pupils belonging to three different age groups. I filmed each teacher at two instances, in two consecutive days where they taught the same subject. For analysis, I selected such events from the video recordings where there was a large chalkboard activity by the teacher. Based on sequences from the video observations, interview guides were prepared. The questions were designed to be related to the three categories of theories. Before the interviews began, each of the teachers silently watched small clips from their respective films.
PublicationGran, Marius Wahl. (2018). Tabula rasa - the performative and unique materiality of the blackboard. RoSE - Research on Steiner Education, 9(1). Link to article.
Research article: Conceptions of history and history teaching in Waldorf Schools
Frode Barkved
NORENSE funding: 37.000 NOK in 2017 (25.000 for writing the article and 12.000 for translation to English)
Background
and
motivation
As a Waldorf teacher through twenty years and as a lecturer at the
Rudolf Steiner University College (Oslo, Norway), for ten years, the
question of the relationship between the ideas and views on history
coming from the anthroposophy and the teaching practise has been of
great interest for me. In a master thesis, which I finished in May
2016, I worked with Steiner's concept of history in relationship both
to the current educational and historical discourse, and to how the
teaching of history is described in the Waldorf curriculum and
practised by waldorf teachers. Questions and problems which came out of
the master thesis:
1) The culture epoch's theory and Rudolf Steiner's concept of history -
the relationship between anthroposophy and Waldorf education.
2) History teaching in Waldorf Schools in relationship to the global -
and multicultural society and the question of eurocentrism.
3) The complexity of Steiner´s views on history, and how
Waldorf teachers relate to and reflects on this.
Research
question
How can conceptions of history expressed in Rudolf Steiner's works
relate to curricula and teaching in today's Waldorf Schools, and how do
experienced waldorf teachers reflect on this? Can their reflections and
a closer examination of the issue have an impact on the development
history teaching in Waldorf Schools?
Methods
and theoretical
approaches
Connected to the master thesis I made five qualitative
interviews/conversations with experienced Waldorf teachers. In the
interviews, the teachers told about how they relate to
Steiner´s concepts of history and how they use motives form
the curriculum to form their teaching. In the interviews I had Jennifer
Mason's (2002) words in mind, when she writes that through working with
qualitative research you can discover dimensions in the social world
"including the texture and weave of everyday life, the understandings,
experiences and imaginings of our research participants, the ways that
social processes, institutions, discourses or relationships work, and
the significance of the meanings that they generate". For me the words
life, understanding and experience was of special importance in the
interviews I did. The approach to an answer to the research question is
based on interviews, curricula and theory. In the research article, I
will look closer to central aspects coming
from these qualitative interviews together with curricula,
theoreticians in the anthroposophical-academic field (including
Bartoniczek, Edlund, Heisterkamp, Lindenberg, Mazzone, Stabel and
Zech), as well as Steiner´s works. The article will also
include relevant aspect on the themes coming from current
historical discourse (including Burke, Crossley, Kjeldstadli, Lund,
Foucault, and Hanegraaff).
Publication
Frode Barkved. (2018).
Views of history and history teaching in Waldorf education. RoSE - Research on Steiner
Education, 8(2). Link to article.
Bendik og Årolilja - The Ballad's tale about the Circumstances of Love
Hanne Weisser
NORENSE funding: 25.000 NOK in 2017
Background and
motivation
The
medieval ballad Bendik og Årolilja belongs to a
group of
Scandinavian ballads dealing with various aspects of love and marriage.
These 'love'-ballads are about betrothal and courting, faithfulness and
deception in and outside of marriage, clandestine childbirth and the
murder of infant. The ballads are from a period of transition in Europe
and seems to mirror conflicts in religious belief, in the relationship
between man and woman and in the individual's duties towards family and
relations when choosing a life partner. The project Bendik og
Årolilja is a continuation of a long-term interest in folk
songs
and medieval ballads, which until now has resulted in different kinds
of articles and a book with cultural historical essays about seven
medieval ballads: Folkevisenes
fortellinger - Helter, helgener, hverdagens hendelser,
Gyldendal forlag 2006.
Research questions,
methods, sources
In
the research project the ballad Bendik og Årolilja
will be
studied and read in a social historical context, to see if and how the
ballad reflects questions, ideas and mentalities related to a specific
historical period. Bendik og Årolilja deals with
romantic
love, which became an issue in literature, poetry and songs in the 12th
century. In this century, women for the first time became a judicial
subject in matrimony law. A question will be: to which degree does the
ballad reflect the conflicts that emerged when the church, in canon law
in the 12th hundred, proclaimed that a marriage was legal only if the
woman had given her consent? - Indirectly, a woman from now on, was in
her right to refuse a marriage, this being a new right for her.
The
storyline in the ballad will be discussed in relation to social
conditions, moral laws and women's legal position in medieval Europe as
well and in premodern Norway. The text in the different variants of the
ballad will be read closely, for the reason to find eventual coherence
between the theme in the ballad and the social questions and dilemmas
in society at the time the ballad was sung and orally transmitted.
Extensive and interdisciplinary reading of literature and research will
be necessary to substantiate and support points of view as to what the
ballad's major theme might be, and how this theme corresponds with
changes in society.
Publication
Weisser, Hanne. (2019). Kjærlighetens kår. Tidsskrift for kulturforskning
(1), 83-101. Link to pdf.
Exploring Bildung and practical wisdom in Waldorf education practice through case narratives: a framework for empirical research
Ruhi Tyson
NORENSE funding: 25.000 NOK in 2017
Background and motivation for the project
The aim of this project is to discuss how Alasdair MacIntyre’s (2011) concept of a practice can be helpful in empirical research on Waldorf education when combined with a case narrative approach. It is especially concerned with the virtues and goods of Waldorf education as practice that are otherwise difficult to surface and that are covered by the concepts of Bildung and practical wisdom. This is generally motivated by a lack of documented history of practice in teaching, something Shulman pointed out in 1987 (Shulman 2004). Specifically, it is motivated by a need to begin articulating Waldorf education as a practice by those participating in it. Such articulations of enacted and experienced curricula can contribute both to the development of the practice from the ground up and to opening it to outsiders. In both cases it hinges on the cases being ones in which the practitioners themselves judge that the practice comes close to its ideal state, ie. the cases need to be about unusual success or richness. The article draws on the results from my recent PhD thesis (Tyson 2017) and develops them further in relation to Waldorf education.
Research question
How can the use of case narratives to articulate Bildung and practical wisdom in Waldorf educational practice contribute to both research and development?
Sources, methods and theoretical perspectives
Theoretically this inquiry is located in the context of phronetic social science (Flyvbjerg 2001) where the aim of research is to contribute to the wisdom of practice rather than to the formulation of generalizable theory. Conceptually the article draws on the traditions of Bildung and practical wisdom to both interpret case narratives and in guiding informants on what to narrate. Furthermore it draws on MacIntyre’s concept of a practice as a way of situating the cases in a more theoretical framework. Methodologically the approach is oriented towards the collection of case narratives of unusual success or richness, a kind of extreme and paradigmatic case approach in Flyvbjerg’s terminology (2001). In order to illustrate and drive the argument I will also present some case narratives taken from the Waldorf educational context.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2001). Making
social science matter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MacIntyre,
A. (2011 [1981]). After Virtue. London:
Bloomsbury.
Shulman, L. (2004). The wisdom of
practice. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Tyson,
R. (2017). The
rough ground. Narrative explorations of
vocational Bildung and wisdom in practice. Dissertation,
Department of
Education, Stockholm University. Link:
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1063292/FULLTEXT02.pdf
Publication
Tyson, Ruhi. (2018). Exploring Waldorf education as a
practice through case narratives: A framework for empirical research. RoSE - Research on Steiner
Education, 9(1). Link to article.
Eurythmy and movements in three dimensions: In which ways can they be understood to support the child´s development?
Maria Keller Birnbaum
NORENSE funding: 37.000 NOK in 2017 (25.000 for writing the article and
12.000 for translation to English)
Eurythmy and remedial eurythmy, practised in Steiner schools for almost a century, would benefit from the further development of a supporting theoretical framework and the understanding of eurythmy´s function in a school context.
Research questions
How can we understand the role movement and movement training plays in the developing child?
The significance of movement in the three spatial dimensions - how does movement in a particular spatial direction relate to the evolving of specific inner faculties in a child?
Sources, methods and theoretical perspectives
In Behold the Child (Keller Birnbaum, 2010) assessment methods employed in a remedial eurythmy practice within a Steiner school was evaluated. Through progressive focusing and Grounded Theory the emphasis was put on discovering which active reflexes had been retained by 29 students with difficulties in concentration, reading and writing deficiencies or emotional problems. The method of observing early childhood developmental movements together with the performance of eurythmical vowel and consonant movements showed itself to be a suitable foundation on which individual movement programs could be designed. The study The Horse and Rider (Keller Birnbaum, 2016) evaluated movement programs created for and practised by six children with neuropsychiatric diagnoses such as dyslexia, ADHD and Autism. The interventions were followed up through observation and interviews with teachers, parents and the children themselves. Specific learning difficulties were found to correspond to the appearance of retained reflex movements in a specific spatial dimension. Problems with reading and writing proved to be associated with retained reflexes uin the lateral dimension, difficulties in concentration with the sagittal and emotional problems with the vertical. Remedial interventions performed in the corresponding dimensions proved helpful for the child. The link between movements in one spatial dimension and the development of specific learning prerequisites is discussed in the light of psychological and educational theories.
Intended form of publication
The article is intended to be published in a peer-reviewed journal such as RoSE and in a relevant popular journal such as På Väg and Balder.
Publications
Keller Birnbaum, Maria. (2010). Behold the child - An evaluative case study of assessment methods used within a remedial eurythmy practice in a Steiner school. (Master), University of Plymouth, Plymouth.
Keller Birnbaum, Maria (2011). En pedagogisk läs - och skrivutredning med förslag till åtgärder En fördjupad fallstudie av Lisa 9 år. Stockholms universitet, Stockholm.
Keller Birnbaum, Maria (2016). Specialpedagogik, kunskapssyn och sinneslära, i Granstedt, Pär (Red.) Kunskap utan gränser Antroposofisk och jämförande kunskapsteori. Järna: Kosmos förlag.
PhD project: Phronetic knowledge and action in the background philosophy of Steiner teacher Education
Markku Niinivirta
NORENSE funding: 245.000 NOK in 2016
Background and motivation for the project
There are no previous Ph.D. studies accomplished on the topics of
Steiner Teacher Education or Snellman College in the field of Finnish
academic research. Snellman College has strong links to the Finnish
educational background through the Finnish national philosopher J.V.
Snellman. Snellman's philosophy and educational philosophy has its
Hegelian roots, but he developed his philosophy further in his
independent way. Philosopher, professor Reijo Wilenius, the founder of
Snellman College was also the chief editor
of the collection of selected works of Snellman and he found the
similarities between Snellman's and Steiner's philosophies
(epistemology and ethics) and ideas of education. According to
Wilenius, with his emphasis on artistic education Steiner is more
practical. Reijo Wilenius published in 1975 an important work [The
Conditions of Education] (Bildningens villkor), based on the
Aristotelian practical knowledge and action in education, and in which
he updates these ideas to our postmodern times. Wilenius takes
here a step further compared to his teacher's Georg Henrik von Wright's
idea of Aristotelian practical syllogism and its link to the theory of
action. In 2002 Snellman College was evaluated for the first time by
the external evaluation group of FINHEEC (Finnish Higher Education
Evaluation Council). The results of the assessment were positive, but a
recommendation that the background philosophy of Snellman College
should be studied more closely was put forward. That would be valuable
not only for Snellman College but also for the Finnish Teacher
education system in its entirety. The aim of this study is to open the
academic discussion on Steiner teacher education
both on the national and Nordic level.
Research questions
The main research question is: What kind of experience of phronetic
knowledge and action have the Steiner school teachers who graduated
from Snellman College acquired during their studies?
The main question is divided into three research areas:
- What is the meaning of the Aristotelian concept of phronesis? How to understand its historical and philosophical development and significance from Aristotle through the modern philosophers Georg Henrik von Wright and Reijo Wilenius to today's discussion on education in Finland? How to reinterpret phronesis in the context of modern teacher education as its background philosophy?
- Snellman College: the history of its foundation in 1980, and its teacher education, especially the relationship to phronetic knowledge and action in the context of its educational ethos and curriculum design.
- Empirical study / Interviews with seven teachers, graduates from Snellman College:
How do they evaluate the teacher education they received now after gaining practical experience in Steiner Schools?
Methods and theoretical approaches
From the methodical and theoretical point of view, the theme of the
study is approached from three different angles, which form the
structural basis of the thesis:
Chapter One, Introduction and Methodology. Chapter Two is dedicated to
the study of phronesis, concentrating on its features of readiness to
act/action. In Chapter Three readiness to act (phronesis) will be
operationalized and the focus lies on the question of teacher education
as educational action at Snellman College. In Chapter Four interviews
and their narrative analysis are examined with a focus on processes of
mimesis1,2,3.. Plot, says Aristotle, is the mimesis [imitation] of
action. Chapter Five Conclusions
and Discussion.
Publication
Niinivirta, Markku. (2017).
Fronesis opettajankoulutuksen taustafilosofiassa:
Snellman-korkeakoulusta valmistuneiden steinerkoulun luokanopettajien
kertomuksia tiestään opettajuuteen (The concept of
phronesis
as a background philosophy of teacher education: Narratives by Snellman
College’s Waldorf Steiner class teacher student alumni with
reference to their individual paths toward the profession).
(PhD). Tampere: Tampere University Press: Link
to PhD (in Finnish) Link to dissertation event (in Finnish)
Waldorf Teacher Education 2017
Rudolf Steiner University College, Norway (RSUC)
NORENSE funding: 200.000 NOK in 2016
Objectives for the project The RSUC institutional development project, Waldorf Teacher Education 2017, aims at developing an updated and contemporary teacher education based on core ideas, practices and values within Steiner Waldorf Education. This teacher education programme will provide relevant knowledge, skills and competences required for teaching in Waldorf schools, and aims at the same time to provide qualifications for employment in public schools.
Subproject 1 -
Waldorf teacher education 2017
The current three year, bachelor degree Waldorf teacher education
programme at RSUC contains three subject groups: 1) Pedagogy and
student knowledge, 2) Language and social studies and 3) Mathematics
and natural science, each comprising 60 ECTS). Arts are integrated into
all subject groups. From 2017, all mainstream teacher education in
Norway will have a duration of five years and be at a master's level.
The plan for the new teacher education at RSUC is to deliver the three
first years as a Waldorf educational
programme with emphasis on age-appropriate teaching, Waldorf
educational didactics and other relevant Waldorf educational topics.
The two subsequent master years will be given in collaboration with a
state university college. A challenge will be to find the right balance
between the wide array of Waldorf topics and the required credit points
to be taken in one school subject. The aim of this subproject is to
develop specific models and plans for establishing this new combined,
five year, teacher education programme
from 2017. The project will be based on the current Waldorf teacher
education at RSUC, as well as the results of subproject 2 and 3.
Subproject 2 - what
are the right Waldorf educational qualifications now
Which educational knowledges, skills and competencies are required in
today's
Waldorf schools? How should a Waldorf teacher training relate to the
qualification requirements given in the upcoming curriculum for a
mainstream teacher education at the master's level? These questions
will be discussed with all stakeholders within the Waldorf school
movement in Norway; parents, teachers, school leaders, the federations,
teacher students and RSUC lecturers. Subproject 2 aims at providing
good and mutually accepted
guidelines for outlining a set of appropriate knowledges, skills and
competences for Norwegian Waldorf teachers. Based on this work, a
collection of arguments will be formed that can be used in further
negotiations with the authorities to ensure alternative requirements
for employment and school provision for Norwegian Waldorf schools in
the future.
Subproject 3: how
to build up teaching qualifications in mainstream schools?
This project will investigate various models of extending the existing
Waldorf teacher education programme at RSUC (bachelor's degree) in such
a way that it can lead to qualifications for employment and teaching in
Waldorf schools as well as in public schools. RSUC has been in contact
with The Norwegian Educational Ministry on this matter, likewise with
Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (HiOA) (the
largest provider of teacher education in Norway). There is already
established a good basis
for cooperation on different possible models with HiOA. A suitable
model must ensure that students can acquire the required credit points
in the main subjects Norwegian, English and Mathematics. The teacher
education at RSUC is structured differently than mainstream teacher
education programmes, with a wider scope of topics compared to the
emphasis given to single school subjects in mainstream teacher
education. A good model for integration must be found.
Project organisation
The project group consists of school leaders in Waldorf schools, a
social scientist, students and lectures at the RSUC and the project
leaders, who both have previous experience of such work. The project
gets its mandate from a steering committee and regularly reports to it.
The steering committee consists of the chairmen at RSUC, at The
Norwegian Waldorf Federation and at The Association of Waldorf Parents.
Project owner
RSUC and The Norwegian Waldorf Federation are the project's owners.
Outcome
The
new 5-year master degree teacher education was recognised as a joint
degree between RSUC and OsloMet, and started with its first group of
students autumn 2019.
Gender and Waldorf Early Childhood Pedagogy and Practice
Sara Fröden
NORENSE funding: 50.000 NOK in 2016
Background and motivation for the project
The overall purpose of the project is to increase the knowledge and
understanding of Waldorf early childhood education and also contribute
to the discussion of feminist pedagogies in preschool practices. There
is a relatively small amount of research in the area of Waldorf early
childhood education in general and publications that particularly
address issues concerning gender and the educational practice are
scarce. I intend to complete an article where the central results of my
doctoral thesis (Fröden 2012)
are presented and further developed. This article, with the working
title When gender becomes non-relevant: Situated decoding of gender in
a Swedish Waldorf kindergarten, highlights the importance of rethinking
the feminist theorizing of younger children's understanding,
experiencing and performing of gender.
Research questions
The aim of the article is to further examine the concept of situated
decoding of gender - a concept first developed in my thesis. Firstly,
by showing how this on-going process emerges and how it is maintained
in the Waldorf pre-school practice. Secondly, by relating the concept
to feminist theories, pedagogies and early childhood educational
practices: How can the concept of situated decoding of gender
contribute to a development of a feminist early childhood education? Is
it possible to transfer the results
of the study to another educational practice? Or in other words, is it
likely that the situated decoding of gender will exclusively occur in
the context of the Waldorf preschool and if so, why?
Sources, methods and theoretical perspectives
My thesis is based on an ethnographic study, which examines the
practice of a Swedish Waldorf kindergarten with a specific focus on
gender, age and spirituality in relation to material and spatial
dimensions. A fieldwork was conducted over a period of 1.5 years with a
group of seventeen children aged 3-6 years and two female Waldorf
preschool teachers. The methods used were mainly participant
observations and in-depth interviews. Drawing on Judith Butler's
understanding of performativity and (un)doing of gender,
this article will contribute to the field of feminist theories by
developing the theorizing of young children and gender, as well as to
Waldorf early childhood education in general.
Fröden, Sara (2012): I föränderliga och slutna rosa rum. En etnografisk studie av kön, ålder och andlighet i en svensk waldorfförskola. örebro: örebro Studies in Education 35. Link to dissertation
Publication
Frödén, Sara. (2018). Situated decoding of gender
in a Swedish preschool practice. Ethnography
and Education, 13(2) p 1-15. Link
to article.
Group dynamics during playtime in Waldorf Kindergartens when 5-year olds are the oldest
Renate Krämer Østergaard
NORENSE funding: 100.000 NOK in 2015
Background and
motivation for the project
In 1997 Waldorf kindergartens got the permission to keep their 6-year
olds in age mixed groups when the mandatory age of
school entrance was lowered from seven to six
years in Norway. Today, however, also in most Waldorf kindergartens the
5-year olds have become the oldest children, while the 6-year olds have
become first-graders in
separate, age-homogeneous groups. The 5-year olds
have thus lost the 6-year olds as playmates and
role models. My project deals with the question of what effect this
change has on the group dynamics in
Waldorf Kindergartens, with special focus on the
5-year olds' self-instructed play - now as the oldest children of the
group. Research question
How does the absence of 6-year olds affect the group dynamics
during playtime in Waldorf kindergartens?
Sources,
methods and theoretical perspectives
The project is based on observations of self-instructed play
in groups with and without 6-year olds and
semi-structured interviews with Waldorf kindergarten teachers. The
results will be discussed in the perspective
of theories of play, group dynamics, adult roles
and learning concepts.
Preliminary
findings
Preliminary findings of my pilot project show that Waldorf
kindergarten teachers experience the absence of
the 6-year olds as a great loss. They feel obliged
to replace the role of the 6-year olds personally. For
playtime this means that the adults get more
directly involved in the children's play than they
would like, basically for providing ideas, giving
directions and solving problems and conflicts. This new adult role
in Waldorf kindergartens challenges the
traditional self-understanding of the ideal role
of a Waldorf kindergartener, which is fundamentally based
on not directly to intervene in children's
self-directed play but only to arrange the best
conditions for it. Nevertheless, Waldorf kindergarten
teachers are willing to open up new ways to meet
the needs of the 5-year olds without losing sight
of their ideals or compromising the original and crucial ideas of
Waldorf pedagogy.
Intended form
of publication of results
The findings will serve as a foundation for an article that
is intended to be presented in an academic journal
such as ROSE and in relevant popular journals such
as Steinerskolen.
Publication
Østergaard, Renate. K. (2016). Før
skolen begynner. Seks steinerpedagogers syn på pedagogisk
arbeid med 5-åringer i steinerbarnehagen. Tidsskriftet
FoU i Praksis 10(2), 5-22.Link to article in Norwegian.
Phenomenology of audial experience in music education
Torbjørn Eftestøl
NORENSE funding: 80.000 NOK in 2015
Background
and motivation for the project
The purpose of my research is to investigate the relation
between musical practice and meditative work in
relation to perception, in the Goethean sense of
developing a "delicate empiricism". This will be explored from a
theoretical perspective in the current article (to
which a more educational perspective will follow
later).
The fundamental research-question pursued is: As a musician and teacher, how can I develop and deepen the listening experience? This will lead to the more methodological question of how a phenomenological pathway can be developed and grounded in theory and philosophy of perception?
Sources,
methods and theoretical perspectives
The question of method will explore the interplay between
thinking and sensing in the constitution of
experience, and ask how this dynamic can be developed and enacted in a
practical way. I will deal with the question
of how a phenomenology of art needs to develop a
different kind of thinking which work immanent
within the sensible experience, a theme common to many
phenomenologists. This will compose a trajectory
which goes through three stages. First I want to
discuss the insight that perception is conceptually saturated. Then I
will espouse the Deleuzian theory of
sensation and his concept of how art requires a
"thinking in terms of percepts and affects". This
will be exemplified with compositions from contemporary music. As a
third stage I want to relate this conception
of aesthetic experience to Rudolf Steiner's method
as it is presented in Grenzen der Naturerkenntnis,
and elaborated by Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon in his The
New Experience of the Supersensible. On the basis of this I will
discuss if this can be viewed as the first step in
developing a conscious and scientific
super-sensible experience based in artistic work.
Intended form
of publication
The writing will be published both in a peer-reviewed journal
and in a relevant popular journal.
Publication
Torbjørn
Eftestøl. (2018). Listening to History. A
phenomenon-based approach to teaching music-history. RoSE - Research on Steiner
Education, 8(2). Link to article.
Practice-oriented research into teacher education
Ruhi Tyson
NORENSE funding: 20.000 NOK in 2015
Background and
motivation for the project
An aspect of teacher training that has remained in need of
further development and understanding is the issue
of how to provide an education for those aspects
of the work of a teacher that are either craft-like or virtue- and
wisdom-based, both of which require a
predominantly practice-based training. As it
involves issues related to practice one way of
elaborating on this matter is through research into teacher training
programs where it has received unusual
consideration. Being practice-oriented this could
take the form of more apprenticeship-like programs, programs with
extensive role-playing of lessons and programs where there is an
elaborated and systematic
exchange between practicums of various forms and
academic reflection coupled with these. The motivation for the project
is to conduct a series of case-studies of institutions with unusual
emphasis placed on these matters in order to analyze, compare and
discuss different approaches
to such practice-based teacher training.
Research question
The research question can be formulated as: what are some of
the current curricula for practice-based teacher
training, how do they compare with each other and
how can they contribute to a deeper and more differentiated
understanding of the practical aspects of teacher
knowledge.
Sources,
methods and theoretical perspectives
The sources of the research project will be a group of, at
the most five, teacher training institutions that
have paid unusual attention to the development of
teacher's practical knowledge forms. Methodologically the documentation
will be of intended
curricula and practices of enacted curricula. This
implies a combination of textual studies,
interviews and observations in order to construct the individual cases
for comparison. The theoretical perspective
forming the background to the study is situated
within practical philosophy as it has developed over the past 30 years,
particularly Heron & Reason's
(1997) participatory inquiry perspective as well
as Aristotle's analysis of practical knowledge as part techne (making),
part phronesis (practical wisdom
or prudence). The Aristotelian perspective
together with Schön's (1983, 1987) views on reflective
practice serve as analytical lenses
through which to structure, compare and discuss
the cases. This theoretical context has been developed in my recent
licentiate thesis (Tyson 2015) as
well as in a forthcoming article for the journal
Vocations and learning (Tyson forthcoming) of which there is an early
version in the thesis. References:
Heron, J. & Reason, P. (1997). A
participatory
inquiry paradigm, Qualitative
Inquiry 3(3) 274-295.
Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective
practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Publishers. Schön, D. (2003). The
reflective practitioner, how professionals think in action.
London: Ashgate. Tyson, R. (2015). Vocational
Bildung in action. Stockholm
University.
Tyson, R. (forthcoming). Educating
for vocational excellence,
in Vocations and learning.
Publication
Tyson, Ruhi. (2016). What would Humboldt
say: A case of general bildung in vocational education? International
Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET), 3(3),
230-249. Link to pdf.
Complexity and change in Waldorf schools: a narrative study into perceptions of decision-making processes
Fabio Bento
NORENSE funding: 100.000 NOK in 2014
Background and motivation for the project The objective of this study is to contribute to the debate about organizational change in Waldorf schools by analysing narratives of decision-making process told by formal leaders and teachers in one Norwegian school. Therefore, the present study departs from an organizational perspective to investigate perceptions of decision-making processes in Waldorf schools in Norway. Recent waves of educational policy reform in Western countries have aimed at altering school governance by increasingly promoting a shift from a traditional character based on principles of professional authority and consensual decision-making towards more a hierarchical configuration incorporating elements usually associated to managerial/bureaucratic structures. In this context, Norwegian Waldorf schools have faced the challenge to address not only complex external demands, but also internal perceptions of limitations of a once established decision-making model usually associated with flat structures and consensual decision-making.
Research questions
How do narratives of decision-making processes
in Waldorf schools illustrate process of
organizational change?
Sources, methods and theoretical perspectives I articulate complexity in way that it provides a conceptual framework to investigate and discuss decision-making processes in organizations. By analysing organizations as complex systems, it means that we look at them as networks of interactions among interdependent agents who are connected to a cooperative dynamic by a shared goal, perspective or necessity. A presentation of a frame of reference offered by complexity that embeds a choice of research methods that takes into account contextuality, temporality and human agency. The study followed a narrative approach by gathering and analysing stories of decision-making processes presented by six staff members in one Waldorf school in Norway.
Results and conclusions
The findings here present a multi-layered social reality
related to decision-making composed by a mosaic of
narratives illustrating mechanisms of interaction
presented in relation to an overall structure. The narratives
illustrate a complex relation between perceptions of rationality,
conflicts between different interest
groups and individuals, and cultural
appropriateness related to decision-making. The analysis of such
multi-layered reality questions simplistic
notions equating, on one hand flat decisional
structures with democracy and participation, and on other hand, those
equating top-down approaches
with rationality and control. Such findings raises
questions regarding the limitations of regarding
organizations such as schools as living organisms.
Publication
Bento, Fabio. (2015). Complexity and change in Waldorf schools: A
narrative study into perceptions of decision-making processes. Research
on Steiner Education (RoSE), 6(2), 78-94. Link to pdf.
Education in time
Arve Mathisen
NORENSE funding: 116.000 NOK in 2014
Background and
motivation for the project
Education in time' is an interview based Nordic research project
studying time, timing and the experience of time in schools. Very
little research has been done on time and time experience in education.
Therefore, the interviews will cover the most general aspects of time
in relation to teaching and learning. Altogether 16 teachers from the
grades 4-6 (5-7 in Norway) will interviewed; eight from public schools
and eight from Waldorf schools. We want to know how teachers experience
the organisation of time in their work, and how they experience the
timetables that frame their teaching and their pupils' learning. We
also want to hear something about how teachers are planning their
teaching and how they use repetitions and evaluations to look back on
their teaching afterwards. Variations, change in topics or activities,
rhythms or patterns in teaching and learning is another important
aspect of time. We will ask teachers about their experiences with
bringing variety into their teaching. We are also interested in who
decides over time in the classroom and what do teachers think about how
the 'future' is presented to today's children and youth. The project is
hosted by Rudolf Steiner University in Norway, and its research team
counts members from Nordic Waldorf higher educational institutions as
well as from state universities in Norway and Denmark.
Research question
What experiences and reflections have primary school teachers in Nordic
Waldorf and public schools on time, temporality and time use in
education?
Methods of research
This project will be conducted as a qualitative study using
semi-structured interviews. Interviews are chosen because the research
question asks for teachers' experiences and reflections.
Semi-structured interviews allows for a good balance between thematic
focus and openness towards new or unpredicted information. The analysis
will utilise coding, memoing and data display, and proceed according to
well-documented qualitative strategies. All ethical standards
pertaining to educational research will be followed, and the project is
reported to the Privacy Ombudsman for Research, Norwegian Social
Science Data Services (NSD).
Intended form of
publication of results
As a first step, one research article will be written in the name of
all participating researchers. This article will report the main
findings from the study. The intention is to present this research at
an appropriate educational research conference and to publish it in a
peer-reviewed academic journal. The project will also be reported in
the form of a popular article suitable for the Nordic Waldorf
educational magazines. During the course of the study, it will be clear
if further articles can be written and published. Arve is currently
working on a theoretical paper on rhythms in education.
Publications
Mathisen, Arve. (2015). Rhythms in Education and the art of
life: Lefebvre, Whitehead and Steiner on the art of bringing rhythmical
transformations into teaching and learning - Part I. Research
on Steiner Education (RoSE), 6(2), 52-67. Link to pdf.
Mathisen, Arve. (2015). Rhythms as a pedagogy of becoming: Lefebvre, Whitehead and Steiner on the art of bringing rhythmical transformations into teaching and learning - part II. Research on Steiner Education (RoSE), 6(2), 52-67. Link to pdf.
Mathisen, Arve. (2016). Ekte skole: Hva er engasjement og hvordan oppstår det? Steinerskolen (3). Link to pdf.
Mathisen, Arve og Birkeland, Ingrid. (2017). Læreren som rytmekunstner - Om variasjon og gode overganger i undervisningen. Steinerskolen (4). Link to pdf.
Visions and Conditions - The history of the Steiner School in Norway and its development from 1926 to 2004
Anne-Mette Stabel
This PhD project was defended in public the 31.of January 2014
at The University of Oslo. The project has been
funded both by RSUC and by NORENSE. In 2010,
NORENSE supported the project with 224.000 NOK and in 2011 NORENSE with
240.000 NOK.
The study was undertaken at The Department of Educational Research at the Faculty of Education, University of Oslo. During the work, she was also working part time at Rudolf Steiner University College in Oslo (RSUC).
BackgroundThere is no previous study of how The Steiner School has developed within the framework of the Norwegian educational history, and knowledge about the Steiner school activities is seldom part of the Norwegian education science.
Research Question
How has the Norwegian Steiner School, within changing
educational historical conditions, evolved from an
alternative educational idea to a publicly
accredited school offering a 13-year curriculum and how have visions
and pedagogical justifications contributed
to this development?
Sources, theoretical perspectives and methods
The survey was based on a wide range of sources. Plans and
curricula for the Norwegian Steiner schools and a
selection of articles published in the Norwegian
Steiner School Journals have been the most important sources.
Hermeneutic perspectives and analytical narration
are used as methodological approaches in addition
to periodization the period from 1926 to 2004.
Didactics and historical perspectives on education are the theoretical
perspectives in the thesis.
In the thesis, an historical theory of the development of the Norwegian Steiner School is presented. The investigation has shown that there is a high degree of continuity in the visions of The Steiner School, e.g. visions concerning how the students can develop into free and independent individuals. The thesis also shows that the inner and sacred part of all individuals has been considered important. The progression in the curricula and the tradition of teaching has therefore been guided by these ideas. There has also been a continuity in the vision that there should be freedom for schools and teachers, and a strong emphasis has been put on the importance of a wide range of methodological approaches in teaching. Teaching is looked upon as art, and the teacher's inner work has been given attention.
The investigation has shown that legal provisions, laws and reforms, have increasingly covered The Steiner School and it appears from the survey that The Steiner School has adapted to the changing education conditions and also tried to change them. The investigation has shown that The Steiner School partly has been ahead of reforms in the Norwegian school, and in part, the school has had to accept and adapt to the reforms. The Steiner School slowly became a player in the efforts to improve the school's financial terms, but that The Steiner School barely has been used in the work of reform in the public schools.
When the law on state subsidies to private schools was established in 1970, the premises were that the Curriculum of The Steiner School had to be approved, which meant that the legitimacy of the school was a legal matter. Previously the school had legitimized their activities through informal programs, small and fragmented curricula and articles in which visions for schoolwork and qualitative aspects of each grade were described.
The investigation has shown that it is necessary to question how legal terms for alternative schools must be designed for the teaching freedom to be real, a question that affects all schools. The study raises therefore questions, not only valid for private alternative schools, but schools and education more generally.
PublicationsStabel, Anne-Mette. (2014). Visjoner og vilkår: Om steinerskolens utvikling i Norge fra 1926-2004. (PhD), Universitetet i Oslo, Oslo. Link summary in Norwegian.
Stabel, Anne-Mette. (2016). Hva skal vi med skole? Steinerskolens historie i Norge 1926 - 2016. Oslo: Pax. Link to book
The Praxis of the Waldorf Teacher
An empirical study of the interactive knowledge, ethics and didactic
traditions in Waldorf teaching in relation to Rudolf Steiner's view of
freedom and individuality
Leif Tjärnstig
NORENSE funding: 150.000 NOK in 2013
Background and motivation for the project
This is a PhD project placed at åbo Academy, University in
Finland, started in September 2013. The research interest and the
project purpose rests upon an assumption that the pedagogical aims and
thoughts that stem from Rudolf Steiner have persisted until today and
been transmitted mainly through a culture of teaching praxis traditions
within the community of Waldorf schools. Therefore, it suggests that
viewing Waldorf education as a (soon) one-hundred-year-old continuous
educational praxis can elucidate how
original pedagogical intention has developed, deepened and
re-contextualized itself throughout its history of pedagogical praxis.
Philosophical views on professional praxis also suggest that praxis in
itself carries norms, traditions and values concerning the
attentiveness and sense of implicit virtues of professional action.
From this view, the pedagogical visions, principles and ideas from the
beginning of Waldorf schools in 1919 have been subject to continuous
renegotiation in terms of their educational culture,
norms, values and ethics. This renegotiation is done throughout the
history of innumerable individual teachers in their intersubjective
teaching practice; in tacit intuitive pedagogical actions; in the
countless interactive micro- decisions that are made every day. This is
seen as the making of teacher's professional teaching praxis
knowledge. Theodore Schatzkis concept of "teleoaffective
structures" that
permeates and constitutes praxis knowledge is in this central. The
profession of teaching is in this perspective regarded as a living
culture, a praxis of human interaction in which renegotiation of
interaction, interrelations, ethics, human values and beliefs creates
professional knowledge and its history of pedagogical practice
Research methods and analysis
The methodology is based along the research tradition of Stimulated
Recall Interviews (SRI). The research project encompasses seven SRI
sessions carried out over a period of eight months. Empirical material
used in this research project is assembled through video filming a
group of four experienced Waldorf teachers reflecting on their own
teaching activity from filming lessons of their own. In each reflection
session, selected short video sequences are dealt with in which the
interaction between teacher and class
or pupil takes unexpected or problematic turns. Viewing these
situations and discussing them together with the group of teachers, the
intention is to uncover and make explicit their ethical deliberations
as well as the underlying values that constitute the teacher's
pedagogical Praxis. The analysis process focuses on narrative sequences
in the teachers' dialogue. Analysis strategies are built on
"concentration of meaning" and thematic structures of "sub-discourses"
of the research question
that are "internally bound together by a coherent topical trajectory
and/or a common activity". The analysis and discussion is carried out
within three different thematic perspectives. These perspectives are
enunciated through adductive reading and reasoning of selected works
from Rudolf Steiner's educational lectures, parallel with reading
transcripts from the SRI sessions.
Results and conclusions
Tentative results indicate that participating teachers' beliefs, values
and personal ethics and mission underpins the judgmental capacity in
pedagogical interactions. The analyses also indicate that the teachers'
acting and decision-making are not solely informed or controlled by
sets of norms, beliefs and values. Teaching activity, pedagogical
interactivity, instead produces educational and human values and
educational interactive ethics. The research will result in PhD theses
in the form of a monograph. Estimated
delivery of the thesis is late Autumn 2016
Publication
Tjärnstig, Leif. (2020). Didaktisk praxis i waldorfskolan. En didaktisk analys och bildningsteoretisk tolkning av fyra waldorflärares pedagogiska tänkande och förhållningssätt. (PhD). Åbo: Åbo Akademis förlag. Link to pdf.
How are the contemplative activities part of the school setting and which implications do the activities have for the attention and participation of the children?
Marie Kolmos
NORENSE funding: 250.000 NOK in 2013
Short
description of the project/ Research question
This doctoral thesis deals with how one can understand contemplative
activities as part of the school setting and how it influences the
participation, attention and well-being of the children in the subject
teaching. During the last couple of years an increasing number of
scientific
studies have suggested that implementing contemplative activities in
schools can have a beneficial effect on the well-being of the children.
Contemplative activities in school settings are in the literature
broadly defined as activities that foster resilience, well-being and
awareness in children through a wide range of activities such as
mindfulness meditation and yoga or through different kinds of artistry
integrated in the school curricula. In the research literature,
contemplative activities in school settings are mainly described
through quantitative intervention studies investigating meditations
programs typically organized as sessions delimited form the subject
teaching. On that background, there is a call for theories and models
that can link the contemplative activities to the everyday school life.
In my research, I am looking into school settings where
contemplative activities are integrated in the everyday school life
from a qualitative perspective, following a phenomenological and
culture psychology logic and with the overall research question:
How are the contemplative activities part of the school setting and
which implications do the activities have for the attention and
participation of the children?
As for methods, I make use of ethnographic field studies, video
recordings from the classrooms and interviews with teachers and
students.
The two school settings that I'm looking into is a public school where I have visited a class 6 and a Waldorf school where I have visited a class 5. The contemplative activities in the two school settings are characterised by the fact that they are interwoven in the everyday school life and as such cannot be understood as something separated from the teacher's didactical choices and actions. In the public school the teacher is using movement to music, mini-meditation and body scan activities in her teaching sometimes as planned activities and sometimes spontaneously. In the Waldorf School the teacher is in a similar way conduction contemplative activities thus with a specific repeated rhythm throughout the day. Here the children are playing music, doing poetry and different other kinds of artistry. Both teachers implement the different 'extra' activities in their curricula as a way to support the attention of the children and as a way to welcome the children into the classroom and as a way to create joy and well-being. The aim of this project is through the analysis of the two school settings to exemplify how teachers can work with the participation and attention of children across school settings.
Publications
Kolmos, Marie. (2020). På vejen mod trivsels- og opmærksomhedsfremmende didaktikker i skolen: Om læreres arbejde med integrerede kontemplative aktiviteter i undervisningen. (PhD). Roskilde: Roskilde Universitet. Afhandlinger fra Ph. d-skolen for Mennesker og Teknologi. Link to pdf.
Kolmos, Marie. (2019). Opmærksomhedsfremmende aktiviteter i skolen som civiliserende sceneskift. Nordic Studies in Education, 39(1). Link to article.
"I learned to learn from myself" - An ethnographic action research study studying the development of the language awareness while implementing a dialogic teaching method in the High School Finnish language and literature lessons - a PhD project
Eeva Raunela
NORENSE funding 31.200 Euro in 2012
Background
and motivation for the project
The aim of my ethnographic action research study has been my
interest in understanding myself as a Finnish
language and literature teacher and my actions in
teaching situations in Lappeenranta Steiner High School. Specifically,
I have aimed to improve my own
pedagogical practice.
Research
questions
My research questions have been:
1. Is the language awareness in Lappeenranta High School
students improving during the three High School
years through student-centered dialogic methods?
2. What kind of experiences do the students in Lappeenranta
High School attribute to their understanding of
language?
3. What kind of impact has the dialogic teaching method on
the Finnish language and literature lessons?
Sources,
methods and theoretical perspectives
I've made my research report into a chronological narrative
about growing into becoming a teacher. The report
also includes the history of Lappeenranta High
School Finnish language and literature lessons as far as I've been
contributing to them as a teacher. This
has included a conscious attempt to discard
lecturing in favour of attempting to activate students thought more
dialogic methods. The
empirical implementation of the study was participant observation. It
consisted of an observation period of three school
years: from Autumn 2009 to Spring 2012. During
this time I followed one High School class and its' development in
language awareness. In analysing
the development of language awareness I used
phenomenography as the method. The data was all the writing tasks the
five students in the followed class wrote during their High School
Finnish language and literature
courses. In addition to the writing tasks I
followed my own impact to the development of the language awareness
through three surveys for three High School classes
and my own reflective/observation journal.
The results of the research will be available at the end of
this year.
Intended
form of publication of results
A PhD monograph
Raunela, Eeva. (2018). ”OPIN OPPIMAAN ITSELTÄNI” Autoetnografinen toimintatutkimus kielitietoisuuden kehittymisestä sokraattista opetusmenetelmää hyödyntäen lukion äidinkielen ja kirjallisuuden opetuksessa. (PhD), University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu. Link to publication, text in Finnish, summary in English.
The spatial dimension of Waldorf education
Margunn Bjørnholt
NORENSE funding: 105.000 NOK in 2011
The project has explored the ideas of and use of space, rooms and architecture as part of Waldorf education and practice.
Background
Over the last decade,
major changes of spatial and organizational character have taken place
in working life as well as in Norwegian
schools and kindergartens. The trend is towards
larger units, looser and shifting group structures
and open plan spatial structures, more virtual forms of communication
and neoliberal management and
teaching regimes. Compared to this development,
Waldorf schools, with their fixed class structure, their
aesthetic-tactile approach to learning and
reluctance towards computerization of education,
represent an alternative.
Design and methods
The study is
based on case studies of one Waldorf school and one Waldorf
kindergarten, which involved qualitative
interviews with teachers, preschool teachers and
architects, observation of localities, and review of research
literature and key texts.
Findings
Waldorf schools are based on Steiner's ideas on education,
and Waldorf school buildings are often, to a
greater or lesser extent, inspired by Steiner's
ideas as an architect, but the relations between Waldorf education,
Steiner's architectural ideas and
school buildings, are only briefly touched upon in
much of the research literature. This project has tried to bring them
together. The findings presented are based on an analysis of the school
case. Overall, there was a
strong spatial involvement in the school, involving teachers and
parents, institutionalised in a
permanent building committee, and renovation
projects with varying levels of participation and drawing on
professional expertise. The teachers emphasised
the importance of the aesthetic-spatial
arrangements mirroring and supporting the growing and developing child,
and there was an ongoing spatial
reflection regarding the fit between the children,
their age-specific needs and the education. The
study concludes that spatial and aesthetic considerations are an
integrated part of and interconnected with the
Waldorf school curriculum and Waldorf teachers'
practices.
The classrooms, and even to some extent whole buildings were
shaped and modelled by the teachers and the school
community, to form a personalised space, aimed at
reinforcing class identity and the teacher and class as a team.
Aesthetic shaping and modelling was also
used to modify spatial limitations actively. Some
of the rooms had been visually modified, to appear
less square, using particular painting techniques. The teachers also
actively decorated and shaped the room to fit
the class, the stage and the topic at hand. This
general involvement around the buildings and aesthetics formed the
background of the conceptualisation of the
classroom as a physical structure and a common
reflective space, providing the spatial and social structures for
learning and thinking as a collective endeavour, and the class as a
reflective community. The building
structure as well as the class structure provide
room, physically as well as socially, for collective reasoning in the
class (-room), fostering the class as a reflective community and
provide room for thinking.
Despite the architectural limitations of some of the
buildings, the building structures are enabling:
the combination of traditional classrooms and a
large number and variety of special rooms, ranging from the large
theatre to the smithy, enables the
variety and the distinctiveness of the Waldorf
curriculum, and special rooms for arts, crafts,
and music support these particular activities in their specificity. The
teachers argued that they needed
these special rooms, and saw their school as a
contrast to many public schools today, where rooms are designed for
flexible purposes. In contrast to the "flexible" architecture in many
public schools today, the
teachers saw their fixed structures as necessary
frames. The existence of special rooms of different sizes and for
different uses was seen as providing
flexibility, such as teaching choir to several
classes at once. Social space was also important.
Some years ago the largest and best room was reallocated into a
canteen, and, according to the teachers, it was
now an important social space, which they referred
to as the heart of the building. I think this example and the idea that
buildings should have a heart is illustrative
of the attitude towards the school as a space to
be.
The spatial-educational dimension is not fixed finally, but
is subject to ongoing negotiations, reflections
and change. The integration of the spatial dimension in Waldorf
education and vice versa, makes Waldorf schools a
distinctive alternative to public schools, but
Waldorf schools are also under pressure to conform to current trends in
public school.
Implications
The consistency of the spatial and educational dimensions of
Waldorf education gives reason for Waldorf schools
to be self-confident, and for others to look to
Waldorf schools. On the other hand, Waldorf schools' adaptations to the
general pressure to conform to
the test regimes and standards of public schools
may undermine Waldorf schools spatial-educational
distinctiveness.
Publications
Bjørnholt, Margunn. (2014). Room for thinking - The spatial
dimension of Waldorf education. RoSE - Research on Steiner Education,
5(115-130). Link to pdf.
Vocational Bildung in action. A case study of the vocational education biography of master craftsman Wolfgang B.
Ruhi Tyson
NORENSE funding: 2012, 30 000 SEK
Background of project
The immediate background of the project is connected with
questions concerned with the separation of general
Bildung and vocational education. Especially the
problematic understanding of manual techniques as machine-like and
easily replicated and trained. The issues have been pursued through a
joint conceptual frame resting
on Donald Schön's reflection in action as
well as the philosophical tradition in education of Bildung as it has
developed in vocational contexts.
Aim: The aim of the study is to increase our understanding of Bildung in action in a craft vocational context. As outlined above, this is part of a research context that on the one hand brings together Bildung and vocational education and on the other hand tries to differentiate our understanding of the actual practice of teaching vocational subjects, techniques and skills, ie. didactics or the "in-action."
Research questions
What constitutes aesthetic Bildung in action in a
craft vocational context, especially in the field
of vocational subjects, ie. in the teaching of a
subject or a technique?
How is vocational excellence part of Bildung in
action throughout the case, in the double sense
of considering the act of teaching itself and the
extent to which such considerations of teaching episodes
themselves in turn contribute to the development of
excellence?
Sources, methods, theoretical perspectives
The study is a combination of philosophical didactical
research and case study incorporating an extensive
biographical exploration of the vocational
education biography of a retired craftmaster. The philosophical
perspectives are situated in practical philosophy,
especially Aristotle, as well as Schön,
Schiller and portions of narrative inquiry. The results of the
study are first and foremost the
development of a conceptual framework for
understanding Bildung in vocational contexts from a didactical or "in
action" perspective.
Tyson, Ruhi. (2014). Aesthetic bildung in vocational education: The biographical case of bookbinding master Wolfgang B. and his apprenticeship. Vocations and Learning, 7(3), 345-364. Link to article.
Tyson, Ruhi. (2016). Yrkesutbildning eller yrkesbildning: vad lär vi oss egentligen? En introduktion till empirisk yrkesbildningsdidaktik. Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training, NJVET, 6(2), 1-16. Link to article.
The study as a whole, Vocational Bildung in action, is available here.
It is published by the Department of Education, University of Stockholm, 2015. ISBN 978-91-7649-073-0