National Steiner Waldorf Teacher Standards
Taking Responsibility
A course of 44 four-minute films to introduce and discuss the National Steiner Waldorf Teacher Standards
It is part of the art of being a teacher to combine personal authenticity with professional integrity. The Teacher Standards were introduced to facilitate an understanding of how this synergy works – within schools we can help each other by discussing our professional paths and practice.
It’s simple: follow the whole course with your colleagues or dip in and out according to theme. Each film provides a conversation starter for a staff meeting: following the sequence on a weekly basis will provide almost two years of collegial practice enquiry. You will gain a deeper understanding of Waldorf Education as well as each other, and become more effective and more conscious teachers.
Watch the introduction to the course here:
Schools that are members of Waldorf UK will gain access to the course via the network app: https://steiner-waldorf-education-uk.mn.co/courses/4126522/content
Independent UK organisations or schools in other countries can purchase the whole series to download and keep for a one-off payment of GBP 250 / $ 300.
The Steiner Waldorf Teacher Standards also provide a good set of guiding principles for our MTEA students as they get closer to teaching in the classroom.
RUDOLF STEINER’S FIRST TEACHERS COURSE
The First Teachers‘ Course – Essential study material for Waldorf teachers in a new edition for the 21st century
To prepare the first teachers for the original Waldorf School in 1919, Rudolf Steiner gave them an intensive course. The contents, which laid the foundation for Waldorf Education and the work of Waldorf teachers, have formerly been published as three separate volumes: Study of Man (The Foundations of Human Experience), Practical Advice to Teachers, and Discussions with Teachers.
As part of the Waldorf education centennial celebration in 2019, a new one-volume edition of the three parts of the course in their chronological order was first published in German. The English edition, translated by Margot Saar, is now available to guide and inspire the preparation and development of Waldorf teachers around the world who seek to study and deepen their understanding of the human beings they care for in both educational and therapeutic contexts.
This is a joint project of the Education Research group of the Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen Deutschland and the Pedagogical Section at the Goetheanum. It is an international cooperation involving the work of well-known Waldorf educators from Germany, Switzerland, the UK, the USA, New Zealand and Thailand.
In order to make this fundamental series of lectures as widely available as possible, the cover price has been kept unusually low: this means the book will not be available in shops, as sellers would need to charge a substantial premium. In the UK the exclusive distributor is Sven Saar. You can order a copy with free UK postage by emailing sven@waldorfmodern.uk
The previous edition of Steiner’s „Allgemeine Menschenkunde“ was published as „Foundations of Human experience“ in 1996, a generation ago. While it may be argued that Steiner’s insights do not pale with time, the people accessing his work change with the world they inhabit, and are seeking contemporary access.
Margot Saar writes:
„As a teacher who worked with the Teachers’ Course for many years and as a professional translator specialised in anthroposophical literature, I was very enthusiastic about the possibility of creating a new English translation in modern language, using consistent terminology.
Views on translation have changed considerably in the last decades. Translations are no longer expected to read as translations, with the original shining through. Modern translations aim to read like originals. While remaining true to the intentions of the original author, translators grasp hold of the meaning conveyed in the source language and render, or transcreate,
it freely in the target language.
My main endeavour in creating this translation was to achieve a fluidity and accessibility of language that would allow readers to grapple with Steiner’s demanding contents without being impeded by unnecessarily complex sentence structures or terminology, bearing in mind also the many readers of other language backgrounds who work with this course in English.
Translating a book as fundamentally relevant as this has been both a challenge and an honour: I hope you enjoy the results!“
Margot M. Saar studied applied linguistics and translating, Waldorf Education and philosophy. She taught at Waldorf Schools in the UK for twenty years and translated many books, mostly in philosophy, anthroposophy, education and the history of medicine. She lives in England and works as a full time translator and conference interpreter.
To order a copy with free UK postage email sven@waldorfmodern.uk
