Handbook of Research on Waldorf Education

Waldorf Education: An all-round, balanced approach to education that is equally concerned with intellectual-cognitive and artistic-creative learning. A practice- and experience-based pedagogy. Non-selective and open to all children and young people; offering a stress-free, secure learning environment across 12 grades; embedded in a community of students, teachers, and parents. An alternative education that has been successfully practiced for over a century.

The first Waldorf School was founded in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1919. Today, Waldorf Education is practiced in all countries and cultures around the world: in over 1,000 schools, more than 2,000 kindergartens, and numerous centers for special needs education. This makes Waldorf Education the most prevalent alternative approach to teaching. And yet, despite the success and (now empirically validated) recognition that Waldorf schools enjoy, the theory underlying them remains controversial. Within the academic debate, Waldorf