Freien Hochschule Stuttgart

The Freie Hochschule Stuttgart - Seminar for Waldorf Pedagogy trains teachers for 234 Waldorf Schools in Germany and more than 1000 Steiner Schools worldwide. Accredited academic degree programs with an Anthroposophical basis are offered for all pedagogical fields connected to Steiner Schools. This includes the training of class and subject teachers, as well as Upper School teaching and counseling.

The research and teaching activities of the faculty are focused on the further development of a pedagogy in which teaching is viewed as an art. Therein also lies a responsibility to extend and enhance the prevalent scientific orientation in traditional teacher education by adopting a more creative and artistic approach whose aim is to apprehend spiritual, cognitive and emotional processes in a more encompassing manner. In this context, Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy plays a central role. An interdisciplinary discourse between Anthroposophical and anthropological approaches is viewed as a basis for understanding pedagogical realities and as a key to addressing them. As part of an on-going and highly constructive scientific discourse with well-known educators outside of Waldorf Education, the Pedagogi- cal Colloquium of the Freie Hochschule, which has existed since 1987, continues to play a crucial role. A wide range of publications document the importance of educational research in the college, including many publications that arose directly out of teaching practice and are designed for practical classroom use.