Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schmalenbach
Professor of Special Needs Education
Subject area: Educational Science, Early Childhood Education, Art and Waldorf Education / Department of Educational Sciences
Program Director for the Master of Arts in Special Needs Education: Development, Research, Leadership
Telephone: (0 22 22) 93 21 1504
Biography
Studied Special Needs Education, completed a doctorate at the University of Cologne. Many years of work with children, adolescents, and adults with experiences of disability, as well as involvement in a Camphill school and community in various areas of responsibility and roles. Since 2008, Professor of Special Needs Education/Inclusive Education at Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences in Alfter near Bonn. Since 2017, Lecturer in Inclusion at the University of Bonn. Main areas of work and publications include assistance planning, biographical research, phenomenology of embodiment, autism, and the aesthetic dimension of education and special needs education.
Publications
Selection:
Monographs
(With the collaboration of Sören Roters-Möller). Special Needs Education Perspectives on Old Age: Suggestions for Education and Training for Supporting People with Disabilities. Oberhausen/Dornach: Athena Verlag/Verlag am Goetheanum, 2016.
Together with Dirk Randoll and Jürgen Peters: Teachers at Special Needs Schools. An Exploratory Empirical Study. Wiesbaden: Springer, 2014.
Art in the Training of Social Professions. Munich: Kopaed, 2011.
A Special Needs Educational Psychology of the Hand. Developmental Psychological and Special Educational Aspects with Particular Consideration of Autism and Down Syndrome. Lucerne: Edition SZH, 2007.
Edited volumes
Dimensions of Special Needs Education. Developmental Support, Community Building, and Inclusion. Festschrift for Rüdiger Grimm Oberhausen, Dornach: Athena/Verlag am Goetheanum, 2016.
Together with Dieter Schulz: Hans Müller-Wiedemann: Understanding Autism. Wuppertal: Edition Lionardo, 2010.
Journal articles
(2021) Instruments for Assessing Needs – Foundations, Requirements, and Open Questions. In: heilpädagogik.de (in press, December 2021. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12409.19046. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355574801_Instrumente_der_Bedarfsermittlung_-_Grundlagen_Voraussetzungen_und_offene_Fragen_In_heilpadagogikde_im_Druck
(2021) Presentation of Selected Instruments for Determining Individual Needs in the Overall Planning Procedure under SGB IX. (PDF) PRESENTATION OF SELECTED INSTRUMENTS FOR DETERMINING INDIVIDUAL NEEDS IN THE OVERALL PLANNING PROCEDURE UNDER SGB IX (researchgate.net)
(2020). Biographical Narratives. Disabled People. Journal for Learning, Living and Working Together, 43, 35-39. (PDF) Biographical Narratives of People with Assistance Needs. In: Menschen. Journal for Learning, Living and Working Together, 2020 (43), 35-39. (researchgate.net)
(2020) “Living Knowledge” – On the Relation of Waldorf Education and Waldorf Special Needs Education to Goethean Phenomenology (1)
(2019) Thinking and Supporting Development – On the Relation of Waldorf Education and Waldorf Special Needs Education to Goethean Phenomenology (2)
(2016) “Living Knowledge” as an Organ of Perception. On the Relationship between Knowledge, Perception, and Action from the Perspective of Waldorf Education”. In: Die Drei, 2016, 9−19.
(2014) Enabled and Disabled – Abilities and Limitations from the Perspective of Psychology and Special Needs Education”. Supplement to the journal Coincidentia, 2014.
(2014) Proximity and Distance. Dimensions of Educational Action. In: RoSE – Research on Steiner Education, Vol. 5 (special issue), 2014, pp. 1-20. 214 (rosejourn.com)
(2012) Kaspar Hauser or the Perception of the Foreign Human Being. RoSE, Vol. 5 (2), 1-15. https://www.rosejourn.com/index.php/rose/article/viewFile/221/228
(2014) Diagnostics as Art?. Seelenpflege in Heilpädagogik und Sozialtherapie,3(2014), pp. 16-37
(2013) Questioning Thought and Biography. Supplement to the journal Coincidentia, 2013, pp. 167-182.
(2012) On the Aesthetic Power of Special Needs Education. In: Coincidentia, Volume 3, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 195-222.
(2011) Special Needs Education and Art. In: Lernen Konkret, 4-11.
(2008) Lived Body Experience and Relation to the World. In: Lernen Konkret, 4, pp. 26-29.
(2007) Pascal – a Retrospective Study on Autism. In: Seelenpflege in Heilpädagogik und Sozialtherapie, Issue 4, pp. 19-37.
(2001) Point and Circle: Approaches to the Nature of the Human Being. In: Seelenpflege in Heilpädagogik und Sozialtherapie, Issue 2, 2001, pp. 2-16.
Book chapters
(2022, in preparation). Aesthetic Practice for Teacher Education. A Proposal for the Coming 10 Years. In Rainer Kaenders, Roland Ißler & STephan Stomporowski (eds.) Rethinking Subject Cultures. Bonn Perspectives for School and Teacher Education.
(2021, in press) Poetry and Autism. In: Stahl, H. / Fechner, M. Return of the Subject? Explorations through Philosophy, Theory and Contemporary Poetry. Berlin.
(2020) Sketches on the Relationship between Special Needs Education, Inclusion, and Art. In BHP (ed.) Special Needs Education in Transition. Berlin.
(2020) The Hand – Tool of All Tools. On the Anthropology of the Hand. In Giovanni Maio (ed.) Face to Face. On the Importance of Encounter in Medicine (99-131). Freiburg: Herder.
(2019). The Significance of the Hand for Human Education.In Stephan Stomporowski / Anke Redecker & Rainer Kaenders (eds.) Education – Still a Valuable Concept ? (251-267) ? Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht.
(2018) With Lars Petersen. Attitudes of Parents at Waldorf Schools toward Inclusion. In Koolmann, S.; Petersen, L.; Ehrler, P. (eds.: Waldorf Parents in Germany. Status, Motives, Attitudes, Ideas for the Future. Beltz Verlag: Weinheim, pp. 179-208
(2016) On the Relationship between Knowledge, Perception, and Action from the Perspective of Waldorf Education, in: Dimensions of Special Needs Education. Developmental Support, Community Building, and Inclusion. Festschrift for Rüdiger Grimm Oberhausen, Dornach: Athena/Verlag am Goetheanum, pp. 64-84
(2015) The View of the Human Being in Inclusion. In: Jost Schieren and Horst Philipp Bauer (eds.). Education and the View of the Human Being. Weinheim: Beltz, pp. 251-279.
(2013) Diagnostics as Art? In: Dieter Lotz (ed.), Special Needs Educational Diagnostics – Paths of Knowledge toward the Human Being. Berlin: BHP Verlag.
(2013) Gestures − on the Bodily Dimension of Educational and Special Educational Action. In: Jochen Krautz and Jost Schieren (eds.). Personality and Relationship as the Foundation of Education. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa, pp. 70−84.
(2013)Facilitated Communication and the Lifeworld. In: Bundesverband Autismus (ed.). On the Path to Inclusion. Karlsruhe: Loeper 2013. pp. 170−184.
(2011)Anthroposophical Special Needs Education. In: R. Uhlenhoff (ed.): Anthroposophy in History and the Present. Berlin: Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, 2011. pp. 477−509.
(2010) Hans Müller-Wiedemann’s Contribution to Autism Research. In: B. Schmalenbach and D. Schulz (eds.), H. Müller-Wiedemann: Understanding Autism. Wuppertal: Edition Lionardo 2010. pp. 6−18.
(2008) Movement and Language. In: Rüdiger Grimm and Götz Kaschubowski (eds.). Compendium of Anthroposophical Special Needs Education and Social Therapy. Reinhardt Verlag, Munich 2008. pp. 184−199.
(2006) The Connection of Science, Art, and Practice in Education – Foundations and Description of a Research Project. In: Andreas Fischer (ed.), Education and Art. Bern: Paul Haupt, 2006, pp. 99−114.
(2001) On the Special Needs Education of Bodily Perception. In: Ferdinand Klein (ed.) Encounter and Trust. Edition SZH. Lucerne 2001. pp. 6−72.
(2000) Karl König: A Life Portrait. In: M. Buchka, R. Grimm, F. Klein (eds.), Life Portraits of Important Special Needs Educators in the 20th Century. Munich: Reinhardt, pp.145-158.
(1999) Lukas: a Case Study. In: G. Kaschubowski, G. (ed.), On the Question of Effectiveness in Special Needs Education. Lucerne: Edition SZH 1999, pp. 161−186.
Research Projects
2025: Attitudes toward digital personal instruments. (Working title). Participating researchers: Vogeley, Kai, Prof. Dr.; Köroglu, Sevim (both University of Cologne)
2025: Studium Generale as an Educational Idea for the Future
2018 to 2025: Anthropology of Waldorf Education with particular consideration of Inclusive Education / Special Needs Education. Participating researchers: Klünker, Prof. W.U., Grimm, Prof. R. and Schieren, Prof. Jost.