What We Believe
We draw our educational inspiration from Rudolf Steiner among other thinkers and researchers. A glance at the texts we write will reveal the influence of a wide range of sources of ideas in education including John Dewey, Lev Vygotsky, Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, Gert Biesta and many more.
Ulrike Sievers
After studying English and Biology in order to become a teacher and after concentrating on the upbringing of my own three children for some years, I have taught classes 4 to 13 at a Waldorf school in the North of Germany for nearly twenty years with much enthusiasm. Inspired by Waldorf pedagogy and action research, I have done practice research in the field of foreign language teaching for many years. My motivation has always been to contribute to and support a healthy development of children and young people. Moreover I have tried to sow the seeds of interest in and respect for our environment as well as for other people, their languages and cultures. For the last ten years I have been working as a teacher educator in various ways which include the mentoring of new colleagues, visits to Waldorf schools in different countries, workshops at international conferences as well as in the Waldorf seminars in Hamburg and Stuttgart, Germany. I have participated in working groups of the Pedagogical Section in Dornach.
Martyn Rawson
I have been a Waldorf teacher for over thirty-five years. I have worked in the UK and in Germany as a class teacher and I have also taught various subjects in the upper school, mainly history, art history and English. For the last 10 years I have taught English as a foreign language in the upper school. I have also worked in teacher education for many years at Emerson College, Plymouth University, Freie Hochschule Stuttgart, the Waldorf Seminar in St. Peterberg, Helicon and Leiden University in the Netherlands and have given lectures and courses in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, South Africa, the Netherlands, United States, India, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. I have written a number of books and articles about Waldorf pedagogy, quality development and assessment, as well as editing the Educational Tasks and Content of the Steiner Waldorf Curriculum. I was for many years the editor of Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship Publications, the magazine Steiner Education Magazine and the Journal Paideia. I have supported Waldorf schools in many parts of the world. I currently teach English in the Waldorf School in Elmshorn, and I teach foundation studies in anthroposophy at the Waldorfseminar Kiel and am a guest lecturer on the International Masters Programme at the Freie Hochschule Stuttgart. Though I work full time, I create space in my vacations and at weekends to offer some courses.
