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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1401388
This article is part of the Research Topic One Hundred Years and Counting: The International Growth of Waldorf Education View all 12 articles

Navigating an uncertain interregnum

Provisionally accepted
Neil Boland Neil Boland 1,2*
  • 1 Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
  • 2 National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu City, Hsinchu County, Taiwan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This ar cle looks at trends in Waldorf educa on through the lens of Clarence Beeby's work on educa onal myths. Beeby calls myths a form of communica on between contemporaries or between genera ons, ways of conceptualizing educa on which can be understood quickly yet are flexible enough to accommodate a range of interpreta ons. A myth holds for a period then transi ons into a new myth which best suits changed mes and changed circumstances. I reflect on what the myths of Waldorf educa on might be and take up Gramsci's well-known quota on on change, "The crisis consists precisely of the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear," to consider if Waldorf educa on is currently in an interregnum period and is displaying both "morbid symptoms" as well as promising signs of fresh development. Addi onally, I contemplate if these promising signs point towards a new myth which will allow Waldorf educa on to step beyond its century-old, colonial heritage.

    Keywords: Waldorf education, Interregnum, Steiner education, Educational change, Educational myths

    Received: 15 Mar 2024; Accepted: 18 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Boland. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Neil Boland, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

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