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Diploma in Rudolf Steiner Education

Full time:  32 weeks on-site plus 4 weeks in Schools on practicum, observing and teaching.

The full-time Diploma in Rudolf Steiner Education programme delivered between February and December offers an intensive introduction to the impulse, philosophy and methodology of Rudolf Steiner Waldorf Education. Participants develop skills through artistic and practical activities and, through processes of self-discovery and artistic response, develop knowledge and a capacity to promote children’s education, health and well-being. It also offers a creative introduction to Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy, which fosters both professional and self-development. The programme takes place at Taruna’s Homestead campus in a  peaceful setting of gardens and trees on the rural edge of the lower slopes of Te Mata Peak, in Havelock North.

Rudolf  Steiner Education is a continually expanding movement of over a thousand independent and autonomous Rudolf Steiner or Waldorf schools around the world, including 11 schools in New Zealand.  These schools educate over 150,000 students at pre-school, primary and secondary school levels worldwide.

Recognising that education was the key to finding a way out of the social chaos of post-World War I Germany, industrialist Emil Molt opened the first school in 1919.  He invited Rudolf Steiner, founder of Anthroposophy, to direct a newly founded school – the Waldorf School in Stuttgart.

Steiner’s clear views on child development, the constitution of the human being and the purpose of existence, were like a shaft of light to those educationalists who heard and worked with him.  He spoke of a new impulse in education recognising the individuality of every child.

In the six years that Rudolf Steiner directed the school he gave many indications that are still very relevant today despite the lapse in time. He promoted an art of education that balanced scientific, aesthetic and moral values involving the head, heart and hand. He also incorporated art and movement, particularly with the introduction of two new subjects: eurythmy and form drawing.

The goal of Rudolf Steiner Waldorf Education is to enable young people to go into the world with a sense of their own destiny, not to fill slots created by past society for its perpetuity. They are able to freely and confidently to give direction and purpose to their own lives.

Find out more about the history of Steiner Education