Leading for Love, Life, Wisdom, and Voice in Steiner Schools: Constraints and Conditions of Possibility

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter interweaves two stories: the first is the story of Steiner education as one important voice in keeping focus on what matters in education and its transformative promise through the core pedagogical values of love, life, wisdom, and voice. The second story is based on the author’s autoethnographical research on leading practices of Steiner school principals over a period of major change and crisis in a Steiner school’s life. This research included the use of the theory of practice architectures to uncover unsustainable contradictions in the way we work in Steiner schools which constrain the full promise of the educational approach as an engine room for social change and renewal. These contradictions include doubt and uncertainty about the role of the principal and of leadership itself; and the depth of the emotional load of the principal and teachers in holding the competing ideological and pedagogical tensions of the Steiner and broader educational policy environment. Maintaining the integrity of the higher purposes of Steiner education involves leading practices which move away from the unsustainable tensions to encompass intentional hierarchy and healthy collaboration, and a repositioning of Steiner education from the margins to a legitimate part of a diverse educational mainstream.