I’m Yaroslav from Ukraine. Working as a teacher of social sciences in Dnipro Waldorf school.
Speaking about the tasks of pedagogical work in high school, I would characterize them as creating conditions for so young people to show their beautiful fragrant flowers to the world after long years of gardening.
What challenges do I meet in my work? The first is the pressure of the state and the system of formal education, which is expressed in the creation of standards of knowledge and skills of the student, which he must demonstrate as a result of learning. In accordance with such standards there are requirements for the content of the curriculum. In other words, we meet quite certain expectations of society towards students, rooted in the past.
Another problem is such social relations that contribute to the formation of people’s ideas about education in school as a type of service. Such concepts are often finalized by the parents in time for upper school, when they are pushed to the temptation to decide as soon as possible the future of their child after graduation.
The first is bound up with the second inextricably and sometimes seems an insoluble task.
Good Morning!
I believe that one of our main tasks as Waldorf teachers is to offer students the tools and skills that they need to engage meaningfully with whichever version of the world that they encounter.
At the moment, I believe that one of the major challenges we face as teachers is achieving this despite (and concurrent with) the pressure to perform well in externally determined assessment and fulfill externally determined criteria. This is imbricated with neoliberal conceptualisations of education as a commodity, as was stated by Ulrike in the first video and mentioned by Yaroslav in the context of parental expectations of schools in the previous comment. However, it also has to do with social conceptions (and ideologies) of processes of growth (and growing up), progress and success that are broadly perpetuated and sometimes internalised by students. Thinking of some of my senior students, it then seems that motivation (and pressure) becomes extrinsic, but internalised, and the sorts of learning processes that offer the freedom that allow students to really ‘own’ their work (like those that Catherine describes as desirable), become difficult to foster. To achieve our pedagogical aims and enable students to learn meaningfully, it is necessary to control and limit this external ‘noise’.
Good Morning!
I believe that one of our main tasks as Waldorf teachers is to offer students the tools and skills that they need to engage meaningfully with whichever version of the world that they encounter.
At the moment, one of the major challenges we face is achieving this despite (and concurrent with) the pressure to perform well in externally determined assessment and fulfilling externally determined criteria. This is imbricated with neoliberal conceptualisations of education as a commodity, as was stated by Ulrike in the first video and mentioned by Yaroslav in the context of parental expectations of and pressure on school in the previous comment. However, it also has to do with social conceptions (and ideologies) of processes of growth (and growing up), progress and success that are broadly perpetuated and sometimes internalised by students. Thinking of some of my senior students, it then seems that motivation (and pressure) becomes extrinsic, but internalised, and the sorts of learning processes that offer the freedom that allow students to really ‘own’ their work (like those that Catherine describes as desirable), become difficult to foster. To achieve our pedagogical aims and enable students to learn meaningfully, it is necessary to control and limit this external ‘noise’.
Hi, I’m Veronique from France. I am teaching maths in Verrières near Paris.
The main task as a High school Waldorf teacher is to offer a secure environment to engage the students to find their own personality, to discover who are their friends accepting the differences and not to be disappointed when they don’t correspond to the ideal guy they were looking for… Same for themselves. How to give them the right challenges to let them be proud to be able to overcome the difficulties and be successful. It’s so delicate, so sensitive sometimes…
The main challenge is being at each moment in the so narrow road of freedom between the exams and the opening on the world!
Hi, I am Magda from Poland. I am new to Waldorf school, but in general I agree with all said previously. I have experienced myself – and find it crucial, not to forget yourself when fulfilling tasks at school and then at work – that must be the same for our students. On the other hand, we schould not forget, that our school is part of a greater edcation system and our students have tresholds to pass, tasks to master, subject matter to learn. The best thing we could give them is – in my opinion – time to mature and develop wisdom out of this. So if we give them time and learn them not to waste it – we make them ready for every challenge they encounter and able to reach every goal they set for themselves.
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5 Comments
Hello!
I’m Yaroslav from Ukraine. Working as a teacher of social sciences in Dnipro Waldorf school.
Speaking about the tasks of pedagogical work in high school, I would characterize them as creating conditions for so young people to show their beautiful fragrant flowers to the world after long years of gardening.
What challenges do I meet in my work? The first is the pressure of the state and the system of formal education, which is expressed in the creation of standards of knowledge and skills of the student, which he must demonstrate as a result of learning. In accordance with such standards there are requirements for the content of the curriculum. In other words, we meet quite certain expectations of society towards students, rooted in the past.
Another problem is such social relations that contribute to the formation of people’s ideas about education in school as a type of service. Such concepts are often finalized by the parents in time for upper school, when they are pushed to the temptation to decide as soon as possible the future of their child after graduation.
The first is bound up with the second inextricably and sometimes seems an insoluble task.
Good Morning!
I believe that one of our main tasks as Waldorf teachers is to offer students the tools and skills that they need to engage meaningfully with whichever version of the world that they encounter.
At the moment, I believe that one of the major challenges we face as teachers is achieving this despite (and concurrent with) the pressure to perform well in externally determined assessment and fulfill externally determined criteria. This is imbricated with neoliberal conceptualisations of education as a commodity, as was stated by Ulrike in the first video and mentioned by Yaroslav in the context of parental expectations of schools in the previous comment. However, it also has to do with social conceptions (and ideologies) of processes of growth (and growing up), progress and success that are broadly perpetuated and sometimes internalised by students. Thinking of some of my senior students, it then seems that motivation (and pressure) becomes extrinsic, but internalised, and the sorts of learning processes that offer the freedom that allow students to really ‘own’ their work (like those that Catherine describes as desirable), become difficult to foster. To achieve our pedagogical aims and enable students to learn meaningfully, it is necessary to control and limit this external ‘noise’.
Good Morning!
I believe that one of our main tasks as Waldorf teachers is to offer students the tools and skills that they need to engage meaningfully with whichever version of the world that they encounter.
At the moment, one of the major challenges we face is achieving this despite (and concurrent with) the pressure to perform well in externally determined assessment and fulfilling externally determined criteria. This is imbricated with neoliberal conceptualisations of education as a commodity, as was stated by Ulrike in the first video and mentioned by Yaroslav in the context of parental expectations of and pressure on school in the previous comment. However, it also has to do with social conceptions (and ideologies) of processes of growth (and growing up), progress and success that are broadly perpetuated and sometimes internalised by students. Thinking of some of my senior students, it then seems that motivation (and pressure) becomes extrinsic, but internalised, and the sorts of learning processes that offer the freedom that allow students to really ‘own’ their work (like those that Catherine describes as desirable), become difficult to foster. To achieve our pedagogical aims and enable students to learn meaningfully, it is necessary to control and limit this external ‘noise’.
Hi, I’m Veronique from France. I am teaching maths in Verrières near Paris.
The main task as a High school Waldorf teacher is to offer a secure environment to engage the students to find their own personality, to discover who are their friends accepting the differences and not to be disappointed when they don’t correspond to the ideal guy they were looking for… Same for themselves. How to give them the right challenges to let them be proud to be able to overcome the difficulties and be successful. It’s so delicate, so sensitive sometimes…
The main challenge is being at each moment in the so narrow road of freedom between the exams and the opening on the world!
Hi, I am Magda from Poland. I am new to Waldorf school, but in general I agree with all said previously. I have experienced myself – and find it crucial, not to forget yourself when fulfilling tasks at school and then at work – that must be the same for our students. On the other hand, we schould not forget, that our school is part of a greater edcation system and our students have tresholds to pass, tasks to master, subject matter to learn. The best thing we could give them is – in my opinion – time to mature and develop wisdom out of this. So if we give them time and learn them not to waste it – we make them ready for every challenge they encounter and able to reach every goal they set for themselves.