|
|
Monday, February 06, 2006
Becoming a Teacher: Steiner Indications for Teacher Education, Development and Training
Stemming out of the work of the EU-funded Comenius Project to research and design a European Masters Programme for practicing Waldorf teachers and educators, the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education is pleased to announce the publication of: Becoming a Teacher: Steiner Indications for Teacher Education, Development and Training Originally published in German in 1978, this important work by Johannes Kiersch has not appeared in English before. In this new edition, the research undertaken by Kiersch is brought to an English-speaking audience for the first time. The book has been edited by Christopher Clouder, Johanna Collis and John Thompson and published by ECSWE. The distributor is SSF Publications. Please email info@steinerschoolbooks.com for further information.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Swedish National Dissemination Seminar
The dissemination seminar took place on Saturday the 19h of November at the Växjö Waldorf School. There were present 21 persons representing 17 different schools (see the list below) and members of the board of The Swedish Waldorfschool Fellowship. Frejaskolan, Täby Fredkullaskolan, Kungälv Rudolf Steinerskolan, Göteborg Örebro waldorfskola, Örebro Rudolf Steinerskolan, Norrköping Annaskolan, Dormsjö Emiliaskolan, Höör Mikaeliskolan, Nyköping Kristofferskolan, Stockholm Rudolf Steinerskolan, Lund Ellen Keyskolan, Stockholm Växjö waldorfskola Söderköpings waldorfskola Kalmar waldorfskola Mariaskolan, Järna Örjanskolan, Järna Orionskolan, Visby Örjan Retsler gave a detailed presentation of the three years´ work of the project group, the challenges it has met and the innovative work done during the process. He spoke of the future potential of the Masters Programme as a many-levelled way for school enhancement and tool for research in Steiner/Waldorf education, illuminating his presentation with photos and graphic presentations of the structure and contents of the programme. Examples were given of existing and planned pilots in Sweden and the other partner countries. Copies of the Swedish translation of the manual were on display, as well as earlier, project-funded information leaflets. During the following plenum great interest was shown by the participants and important issues concerning the aim, structure and financing of the programme were discussed. It was generally agreed that it would be beneficial for waldorf schools to invest on a programme that would allow schools as well as individual teachers to reflect and investigate on their practice. It was also expressed by the participants that they very much appreciated the way The Socrates Comenius 2.1 has made it possible for the waldorf school movement to develop a higher education study programme.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Comenius Project: UK National Dissemination Seminar held in York on 15th October 2005 The event took place on Saturday, 15th October at the York Steiner School. Representatives from 21 schools and several teacher education programmes were present. Schools represented at the seminar: Raheen Wood, County Clare, Ireland Lancaster St. Paul's, London Meadow School, Bruton Edinburgh, Scotland Holywood, Northern Ireland Dartington, Totnes Bristol Iona, Nottingham Elmfield, Stourbridge Michael House, Ilkeston Michael Hall, Forest Row Cambridge Hereford Botton, North Yorkshire Nant y Cwm, Pembrokeshire, Wales Brighton South West London Kings Langley, Hertfordshire York Ringwood Presentations of the work of the project, the pilots undertaken as part of the project and news of the emerging Masters Programme were made by Dr David Parker, John Burnett and Trevor Mepham (University of Plymouth) and Christopher Clouder (Chairman, European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education).
In addition, Trevor Mepham announced a bursary fund, proposed by the Trustees of Cotswold Chine Home School and designed for Waldorf practitioners undertaking study in their classrooms and schools.
Copies of the project-funded student manual were distributed to all participants and to those representatives who had sent their apologies. In addition, copies of the project-funded booklet on Waldorf teacher education were distributed.
Following the presentations, there was a plenum for questions and answers and discussion of the points raised. In the immediate period following the national seminar, approaches have been made by individual teachers, requesting further information and application details. In addition, two Waldorf schools from the UK have approached the European Steiner Programme Consultative Committee with a view to focusing on specific areas of research and practice and enrolling groups of colleagues to the programme.
Trevor Mepham
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
A Final Meeting and Farewells
A three-year, EU-funded, Comenius Project to design a programme of study at Masters level for colleagues in Steiner Waldorf schools in Europe has completed its work. In early September, representatives of the five partner-institutions – from Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK – and the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education met in Devon for their last meeting. Practical details relevant to UK teachers and staff are outlined below.
As the Project comes to an end, the hope and intention is to give birth to a Programme – a programme that is flexible, accessible and suited to working teachers and school staff who are interested in exploring their work with fresh and enquiring minds, with their pens or keyboards at the ready.
As Project members gathered in Exmouth in the late summer sun, we experienced a sense of friendship and achievement that we had accomplioshed our task, and an expectation that a new Programme is ready to be launched under its own sails. As the meeting progressed, we were informed that the University of Plymouth has appointed a European Masters Project Manager - an indication of the potential which the University recognises in this work. A highlight of the meeting came when the University’s Academic Committee approved two new modules in special educational needs, presented by Nico de Bruin, our Dutch colleague from Helicon Hogeschool. The members of the academic committee were treated to a profound and inspiring presentation of the four-fold picture of the human being, which offers a pathway for medical practitioners and the three-fold picture of the human being, which provides a basis for educational work and practice. It was stressed that these pictures offer fundamental perspectives which contribute to a living knowledge and understanding of children who face difficulties in their health and development.
Shortly after the presentation and with the modules having received formal University approval, Nico de Bruin was taken ill and rushed to hospital in Exeter. To our great sadness and dismay, our Dutch friend and colleague, a man who showed a tender and warm heart in everything he did, died of heart failure two days later.
On the final day of our meeting, Project members travelled into Cornwall. In thick mist and heavy clouds, we made our way to the very edge of the country.
As the grey evening light faded, we came to Merlin’s cave at Tintagel, where we able to walk on the shore and watch the waves crashing into the rocks as we tried to grasp the precious qualities of life and friendship, in the midst of the natural power of the elements and the majesty of life’s rhythms. And so, this first part of a European Waldorf endeavour ended at one of the mystery centres of Western Europe and we said our farewells to each other across more divides than any of us had imagined at the week’s beginning.
Trevor Mepham (Project Coordinator)
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
EMPSWE Dissemination Seminar
British Council Offices, Brussels, 20th May 2005 Christopher Clouder (ECSWE) introduced the Seminar and welcomed the 50 guests and participants from 18 European countries to the British Council offices in Brussels. He spoke about the complex and challenging multi-dimensional contemporary world and the opportunities and tasks which we are called upon to meet and carry out as European citizens in a global community. He reminded participants of Steve Biko's call for schools to become ‘humanised’ and referred to Andre Gide's advice to doubt those who find the truth. Sean Feerick (Directorate General for Education and Culture) spoke of the procedural and administrative problems involved in any sort of project, which seeks to break important ground. Questions being addressed by this Project include the recognition of periods of study, credit recognition and transfer, and transparency between different systems and countries. Feerick commented that the work of the Project will inform policy-making in the EU. Work is currently underway in the Commission to develop common European principles for teacher qualifications and competences. These principles will be published in June 2005. The work of this project resonates with EU work on teacher education. The Commission is making recommendations to the member-states in the following areas: knowledge and information social inter-action being part of and within society There is a continuum of teacher education: Initial teacher education Professional development – the development of competences in partnership with schools, Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) and the wider community Mobility of teachers and students, making the European dimension tangible and concrete In the second half of 2005, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament will publish recommendations regarding the quality of teacher education. Feerick said that the work of the Project has wide-reaching ramifications, focusing on issues that are at the heart of European Commission concerns and priorities. Griet Hellinckx (for the Comenius Project Steering Group) made a presentation outlining the work of the Project, which began in November 2002. The ideas and aims of the five partners were summarised and the process and methods of working were described. The structure and organisation of the emerging Masters Programme were articulated and the presentation ended with a resume of questions encountered, challenges faced and successes achieved. Dr David Parker (University of Plymouth) spoke about the concept of professional development and the nurturing of a culture of enquiry within schools. The European Masters Programme will seek to establish an educational research programme for teachers working in schools, which will enable them to refine and develop what they do normally in their work. The programme will aim to be highly responsive to teachers' professional needs; an important instrument to serve this aim will be a highly-devolved, highly-trained tutor network. The programme will offer intensive tutorial support. The aim and the intention of such a flexible, school-based, teacher-focused Masters Programme is that colleagues become research assistants and critical friends to each other. Some of the design questions were highlighted – questions of quality assurance in a context where there are multiple languages of teaching and studying; the associated question of costs arising out of the intensive level of support and quality assurance; questions of national and professional recognition and accreditation across different credit systems. Urs Hauenstein (Institut fuer Praxis Forschung) reported on the Swiss pilot cohort that began in Solothurn in September 2004. The cohort numbers 13. The first assignment had a 90% submission and achievement rate. Examples of assignment titles were given, including one about homework: An Enquiry of Children's Responses to a Voluntary Homework Project. Solothurn tutors are exploring the possibility of recruiting a tutor from the University of Freibourg as a tutor at dissertation level. Andy Phipps reported on the English pilot cohort at Cotswold Chine Home School. Cotswold Chine opened as a Special School in the 1950s. It was founded as a Steiner special school. Today there are over 100 staff. In each class there are a maximum of 8 students n the care of two qualified teachers. There are 14 students in the Cotswold Chine MA cohort. Following a 90-minute plenum of questions and discussion, Professor Hans van Crombrugghe (University of Ghent) summed up the seminar's proceedings. He spoke about the work of Comenius (the educator) being connected to the idea of the passing through of the spirit of the times, of fire and inspiration. Skills and knowledge provide competences, but attitudes inspire. In the teaching profession today, burn-out is a feature, where there is a lack of fire, a lack of inspiration. Teaching is to have a vocation as a human being; you cannot grasp this scientifically. It is beyond psychology and science. An educator is like a gardener and school management is like a horticultural activity – it never finishes. Herman Hesse described gardening as a spiritual activity that never ends; it continues, it develops, it does not finish. The development of a classroom-based Masters programme for Waldorf educators has the potential to combine the qualities of fire, or inspiration and gardening, or continuing development and learning. Hans congratulated the Project Steering Group and wished the Project a healthy transition into a European Masters Programme. As seminar participants arrived, during the coffee break and at the close of the proceedings, a choir of students from Helicon Hogeschool sang a collection of European folk songs, rounds and madrigals. The high quality of singing, together with the warmth and élan of this young and talented troupe served as a picture to the invited audience of the potential of Waldorf education in the European educational arena.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Master für Waldorfpädagogik bekanntgemacht | Werner Govaerts
Im Auftrag der Vermenschlichung Am 20. Mai gab die Steuergruppe der Comenius-Projektgruppe die künftige Möglichkeit, in Europa den Abschluß ‹Master für Waldorfpädagogik› (‹Das Goetheanum› Nr. 31–32/2004) zu erwerben, offiziell bekannt. Eines der wesentlichen Ziele der Veranstaltung in den Räumen des Brüsseler ‹British Council› war es, in wichtigen Entscheidungskreisen der Europäischen Kommission und des Europäischen Parlaments eine größere Bekanntheit des (von der EU-Kommission finanzierten) Comenius-Projekts zu erreichen. Rund 50 Personen kamen zu der Veranstaltung. Forschungsarbeit vor Ort Der Vorsitzende des ‹European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education› Christopher Clouder wies vor allem auf die inhaltliche Bedeutung eines Master der Waldorfpädagogik hin. Er betonte, daß die Waldorfbewegung vor allem einen Auftrag der Vermenschlichung habe. Sean Feerick von der europäischen Kommission beleuchtete den Zusammenhang zwischen den Prinzipien des Projekts und den bildungspolitischen Entwürfen, die den europäischen Bildungsministern in den nächsten Monaten vorgelegt werden sollen. Griet Hellinckx vom ‹Institut für Waldorfpädagogik› in Witten-Annen sprach unter anderem über die konkrete Struktur der Ausbildung. David Parker von der Universität Plymouth beschrieb die Hoffnung, daß die eigentliche Forschungsarbeit in den Klassen vor Ort geschehe. Im weiteren wurden Erfahrungen von Studenten(gruppen), die schon mit der Ausbildung angefangen haben, präsentiert. Urs Hauenstein erzählte von einem Pilotprojekt in Solothurn (CH) und Andy Phipps berichtete über die Fortbildung eines Kollegiums eines heilpädagogischen Institutes in England. Zum Abschluß plädierte Hans van Crombrugge von der belgischen Universität Gent für die Beachtung des ‹Feuers› bei den Lehrern und für das Weitergeben des Fackels und äußerte die Hoffnung, daß man bei der Suche nach (weiteren) Studienbegleitern für diese Master-Ausbildung nicht zuerst Grade und Diplome in Augenschein nehmen solle, sondern das innerliche Feuer der Kandidaten. Manches blieb noch unbeantwortet: etwa die Frage nach dem Preis, das Problem der notwendigen Übersetzungen ins Englische und die Aufgabe, die Ausbildung nicht nur für Gruppen sondern auch für Einzelteilnehmer möglich zu machen. Information: www.steinerwaldorfma.org
Friday, June 24, 2005
Helicon Visit
On Monday 27th June, colleagues from Helicon Hogeschool, Zeist, in the Netherlands will visit colleagues in the Faculty of Education at the University of Plymouth.
There will be a series of meetings, discussions and negotiations regarding a proposed Masters Programme in Special Educational Needs, proposed to start in Zeist, in 2006. The intention is that the programme of learning and study will be in Dutch.
Dutch tutors from Helicon Hogeschool are currently undergoing training to become approved university tutors for this work. Helicon Hogeschool has a long and respected reputation for excellence in the area of Special Educational Needs. The Hogeschool in Zeist is also the main teacher education centre in the Netherlands for the training of Dutch Waldorf teachers.
This meeting and proposal arises out of the work of the Comenius 2.1 Project to design a Masters Programme for Steiner Waldorf Educators. The Comenius Project is funded by a grant from the European Commission, under the SOCRATES Programme.
|
|
