Educational Advancement at Waldorf Schools

Alanus alumna Christiane Adam is researching this topic in her doctoral project. In it, she investigates whether and how educational advancement is possible at Waldorf schools and what experiences Waldorf students have had with it.

Waldorf schools are popular. This is shown by current figures from the Federation of Waldorf Schools. Since 2000, not only has the number of Waldorf students in Germany risen rapidly, but the number of Waldorf schools has also increased significantly. For example, in 2003 the Free Intercultural Waldorf School Mannheim was founded in a disadvantaged district of Mannheim. One of the school’s co-founders was Christiane Adam, who later completed the part-time Master’s degree in Education at Alanus University. Today, Adam is pursuing her doctorate at the University of Oldenburg on the topic of Educational Advancement at Waldorf Schools. To this end, she is examining the educational trajectories of Waldorf graduates from non-academic family backgrounds.

The origins of the research project lie in her experiences at the Intercultural Waldorf School Mannheim. “Because so many children came from families with no prior experience of academic education, but nevertheless had high expectations of the children’s school careers, the question of the young people’s ‘educational advancement’ and of a school design conducive to this was present from the very beginning,” Adam reports. This was the decisive factor that led her to engage more intensively with the question of what role Waldorf schools play in the lives of people from disadvantaged backgrounds and to what extent Waldorf schools can support them pedagogically.

From everyday school life to academia

After the end of her work at the Mannheim Waldorf school, she opted for a change of perspective in order to pursue the question of educational advancement not only in the school context but also further within academic theory. She therefore began a Master’s degree in Education at Alanus University and subsequently deepened her academic interests in a doctorate. What was special about the Master’s programme? “After my experience in the school field, it was new and exciting for me to empirically substantiate the debates, which tended to be conducted more programmatically—that is, to move from the level of ‘what should be’ to the level of ‘what actually happens,’” the alumna explains regarding her motivation. Specifically, during her Master’s studies Adam came into contact with so-called reconstructive social research, which opened up entirely new perspectives for her on her previous field of work, Waldorf schools and schools in general. She cites the teaching research project, a fixed component of the Master’s in Education, as an important example. In it, she dealt with different concepts of science and carried out her own empirical research project. “We were able to try out different research methods in practice and experience how exciting research can be. I loved that,” Adam says, looking back on her Master’s studies.

These initial academic experiences then motivated the educator to begin a doctorate. In her dissertation, Adam examines the life histories of former Waldorf students whose parents do not have a higher school-leaving qualification. What exactly is being analysed? “The aim is to investigate which aspects had a supportive or obstructive effect on school success,” Adam explains about the doctoral project. The basis for this is biographical-narrative interviews conducted as part of the dissertation. Adam interviewed a total of thirteen former Waldorf students with an Abitur or entrance qualification for a university of applied sciences. She is currently evaluating the results of the interviews. The analysis results are intended to reveal both overarching similarities across cases and case-specific particularities.

Important findings for Waldorf schools

In the doctoral candidate’s view, the project closes a gap in knowledge in the research field of Waldorf education: “There has so far been no systematic presentation, especially with regard to the school experiences of Waldorf students from non-academic family backgrounds.” In addition, she considers it necessary to continue researching the reality within Waldorf schools. Although concrete results still have to be awaited, Adam can already derive initial insights:  “In fact, it can be stated that educational advancement does occur at Waldorf schools. This means that Waldorf schools can provide productive spaces for development for children and young people from socially disadvantaged milieus.” However, it is important to emphasise that these findings are based on individual cases so far.

She also sees her doctoral work as important for school practice: “I assume that the experiences that have already been made and described could be of interest above all to Waldorf teachers.” What is central, she says, is responding to the needs of the students and helping to create productive educational spaces for all children and young people. “Above all, it is about admitting more students from disadvantaged milieus and social circumstances to Waldorf schools in order to achieve greater diversity within the school communities,” Adam concludes. This is an important task for the future of Waldorf education. Christiane Adam’s work can certainly make a valuable contribution to this.

Photo: © Charlotte Fischer / Federation of Waldorf Schools e.V.