Waldorf school. Ex post facto case study

Abstract

The Waldorf school has existed for more than a hundred years. There are over athousand of Waldorf schools around the world. Due to its pedagogical and didacticfeatures and the ideas of the founder Rudolf Steiner, it is intriguing, both for parents and(non)experts. Since this is an alternative free school, it is epistemologically interestingto use a qualitative approach in reconstructing the biographies of adult former studentsof the Waldorf school. Therefore, the aim of the qualitative ex post facto research of thecase study was to examine and understand the role that the Waldorf school played onthe later formal education and lifestyle of former students, i.e., four adult siblings fromone family. It is evident that the Waldorf school has an impact on later educationin state schools as well as the lifestyle of former adult students. However, one shouldnot consider it superior nor inferior to other alternative or state schools. Therefore, itis justified to say that the Waldorf school, in its hundred years of existence, has beenpositively evaluated in practice. The established perspective of educational scienceswhich claims that there is no such thing as the best school and that school is powerful,but not omnipotent verifies the aforementioned statement. This paper presents anddiscusses the theoretical premises and results of the case study