The editors and authors of RoSE: Research on Steiner Education are pleased to present Edition Vol. 14 / No. 1.
The online journal RoSE is a trilingual (German/English/Spanish) academic journal on Waldorf education. In a blind peer review process, scholarly articles on current Waldorf education research are reviewed and published. It is jointly published by Alanus University in Alfter and Rudolf Steiner University College in Oslo. The journal, which is freely accessible online, has been in existence for over ten years and has now published more than 24 issues. A new online issue is now available: http://www.rosejourn.com/index.php/rose/issue/view/36/showToc
The issue includes both methodological and empirical studies in the context of academically oriented Waldorf education and its reference disciplines.
The section Contributions to foundational research opens with a thematic triad addressing the relationship of postcolonial and other emancipatory modes of thought to the theory and practice of Waldorf education.
First, the article by Ruhi Tyson provides a broad literature review of the research conducted to date. It focuses on both explicit and latent value assumptions in Waldorf educational practice insofar as they are (still) oriented toward Eurocentric patterns of thought. At the same time, the author points to a growing number of scholarly contributions calling for an immanent critique of Waldorf education and for a decolonizing practice.
In his study, Michael Zech addresses the question of history teaching that frees itself, in both content and didactics, from the grip of national, reductionist, and discriminatory perspectives. After recalling historical genocides in the course of colonial excesses in German history, he presents approaches for a teaching unit that could be implemented in both Waldorf and mainstream schools.
Frank Steinwachs explores the possibilities of an evolutionary-anthropological perspective for sustainable literature teaching. He bases his discussion on the discourse surrounding the Anthropocene, which interculturally highlights artificially mediated views of the world by human beings that are also reflected in the educational content of global literatures. In the literature didactics of Waldorf education, he sees productive approaches for an interculturally open, development-promoting reception that should be further expanded.
Peter Lawton’s article opens up new perspectives and practical approaches regarding the self-governance of Waldorf schools. The interplay of spontaneous, collectively supported leadership activities and deliberative decision-making is at the center of his analysis.
In the section Contributions to empirical research, the authors Ulrike Barth and Angelika Wiehl present a praxeological approach oriented toward basic aspects of empirical educational science (Malte Brinkmann). With perception vignettes, they expand the possibilities of pedagogical case analysis by means of phenomenological methodology. The study is published here in both German and English.
For the section Reviews, Michael Zech wrote a review of Christian Rittelmeyer’s book Rudolf Steiner’s Mission and Impact. Excursion into an Unfamiliar Educational Landscape (Frankfurt/M.: Info 3 Verlag 2023).
