New issue of “RoSE: Research on Steiner Education” published

New issue of “RoSE: Research on Steiner Education” published

Online journal presents current research on academically oriented Waldorf education

With Vol. 16 / No. 2, a new edition of the online journal “RoSE: Research on Steiner Education” has been published. The trilingual scholarly journal (German, English, Spanish) publishes academic contributions on Waldorf education that are reviewed in a blind peer review process. RoSE is published by Alanus University in Alfter and Rudolf Steiner University College in Oslo. For more than fifteen years, the freely accessible online journal has provided an international forum for research on Waldorf education and has now published more than 25 issues. The current issue brings together methodological and empirical studies on academically oriented Waldorf education as well as its related disciplines.

In the section “Contributions to Basic Research”, Rob Blom opens the issue with two connected studies. In them, he engages with postmodern positions on reality and truth and develops perspectives for a renewed concept of knowledge. Ulrike Barth, Cathrine Bryden and Liliana Olea devote their work to the phenomenon of wonder and its significance for educational processes of perception and formation. They describe wonder as an independent phase of cognition that precedes reflection – as a moment of pause between sensory perception and conceptual understanding. In the second part of his review study, Martyn Rawson analyzes various discourse types of anthroposophy with regard to their significance for the foundations and practice of Waldorf education. His study offers orientation in controversially discussed contexts.

The section “Empirical Research” opens with a contribution by Dirk Rohde and Wilfried Sommer. The authors present an evaluated project on an online upper school campus and illustrate its implementation using a science block on the topic of the “atom.” Li Xiang provides an overview of thematic fields and research gaps in anthroposophically oriented early childhood education. Anne-Mette Stabel and Dag Oystein address challenges arising from the tension between educational reforms and Waldorf educational practice in Norway. One example of this is lowering the school starting age from seven to six.

Renate Ostergaard examines different time structures in the transition from kindergarten to school and their significance for the rhythmic organization of everyday school life. Another empirical study by Vilde Stabel focuses on the role of the physical learning environment in values education in early childhood at Steiner schools in Norway. From the perspective of teachers, she shows how the design of the first grade is intended to promote play and practical learning.

The issue is rounded off by a review by Marcelo da Veiga. The review discusses the book by Albert Schmelzer published by Info3-Verlag in 2025: Rudolf Steiner in the Tension Between the Philosophy of Freedom and Human Rights, Nation and “Race.”