Model Project ``Vocational College as the Upper School of the Waldorf School``

The changes in the state school system (centralized learning assessments, centralized Abitur examinations, shortening of the Gymnasium period to 8 years) and the earlier awarding of intermediate school-leaving qualifications at Waldorf schools could lead to many students leaving the Waldorf school after Grade 11 in the future, as they are either not admitted to the academic Abitur track in Grades 12 and 13 or do not wish to attend it. For these students, the traditionally academically oriented Waldorf upper school does not offer an adequate course of education and qualification, which is not pedagogically justified but can be explained by the historical compromise of the “First Waldorf School” in 1919/20.

In the original impulse of the Waldorf school in Grades 1–8, practical, craft-based, and artistic learning stands on an equal footing with cognitive learning from the very beginning. Rudolf Steiner accordingly wanted to develop the upper school as a “practical-academic comprehensive school,” but was unable to implement it due to staffing and education policy constraints. The Waldorf upper school remained a pedagogical torso, fell under the spell of Gymnasium pedagogy, and developed in type as an alternative to the Gymnasium (arts-oriented Gymnasium). While the cognitive learning path leads to the Abitur with eligibility for university study, the practical learning path breaks off in the upper school without a qualifying certificate. The question of how to shape the upper school at Waldorf schools and of appropriate qualifications therefore arises once again, urgently.

The model project “Waldorf Vocational College” offers the historic opportunity for an action-oriented course of education aimed at an integrated academic and vocational qualification (“dual qualification”) in the form of the general entrance qualification for universities of applied sciences with creditable basic vocational training. The model project is tantamount to an institutional “new foundation” and initiates an action-oriented curricular development that can also lead in the upper school to a “Waldorf education with hands and feet.”

In doing so, the Waldorf Vocational College can draw on and build upon experience that received broad recognition in both academic and school and education policy discussions in the 1980s and has been repeatedly addressed ever since. Owing to the current situation, there is presently a “window of opportunity” and an education policy challenge to take up this impulse again. This is the purpose of the present initiative. So far, the model project has met with a positive response within Waldorf schools.

There are already several Waldorf schools that have implemented the “Vocational College” project, and others are working on it. These Waldorf Vocational College model projects are being supported through academic monitoring, because the associated development processes, evaluations, and experiences are likely to be of great interest to many Waldorf schools. Concentrating on a small number of model schools enables a qualitatively intensive and academically reflected development and thus an impact on the field of school pedagogy and education policy.

Project management:

Overall coordination: Prof. Dr. Peter Schneider

Academic support Schloss Hamborn: Prof. emeritus Dr. Karl-Klaus Pullig/ Prof. Dr. Peter Schneider

Academic support Bonn/Cologne: Dr. Dietmar Müller/ Prof. Dr. Peter Schneider

Project duration/status: 08/2009 – 01/2012, completed

Project funding: Software AG Foundation