| This study proposes that Waldorf education is an example of Expressive Arts Education. It focuses on art as a connecting, and thus educating, force between the individual and the world and explores the role of art within Waldorf education. It also focuses on the philosophical basis of Waldorf education in Steiner's (1982) model of human development and the Goethean (Nobel, 1991, Zajonc, 1993) concept of the interpenetration of thinking and perception. Comparisons are made between Steiner's worldview (1930/1947/1982) and the perspectives of theorists who have influenced the field of the expressive arts: Winnicott (1971), Kohut (1979), and Jung (1989).;This study also outlines a practical, working set of key parameters which inform the field of expressive arts education and discusses their manifestation in Waldorf education. These parameters are found in the synthesis of ideas present in the pedagogical works of Rudolf Steiner, as well as the writings of M. C. Richards (1986, 1996), D. W. Winnicott (1971), Heinz Kohut (1979), C. G. Jung (1916), Ellen Levine (1995) and Arthur Robbins (1989). They are: (1) the nurturing stance of the teacher, (2) the creation of a holding environment and transitional space, (3) the multi-modal use of the arts, (4) the use of art as a transitional object, (5) the multi-modal use of the arts, and (6) the intention to educate rather than to heal. These ideas are implicit in the practice of Waldorf education, and so it is in the pedagogy and practice of Waldorf education that one can see the successful application of these parameters in a functional, contemporary model of expressive arts education. |
