What do teachers need to cope effectively with their day-to-day school life? How can we boost our health and resilience? What can help us face the challenges of today with confidence? And how can an online platform help educators to see themselves as self-effective shapers of their lives and their professional daily routines?
When elewa launched ten years ago as an online platform for (Waldorf) educators, we asked ourselves these very questions. The rapid developments in the digital world and the changes observed in recent years at a social and political level – which are also having a significant impact on the educational landscape – have now prompted us to pause and ask ourselves where we stand today with elewa, whether our initial impuls still holds true, and how we should and can move forward.
When we look at the current literature on educational and contemporary issues and challenges, we come across German researchers and authors such as Hartmut Rosa, Florence Gaub, Gerald Hüther, Margret Rasfeld, Joachim Bauer, Wolfgang Zierer and, in the international context, Gert Biesta, John Hattie, Otto Scharmer and Kathrin Käufer. Their observations and the conclusions they draw from them – in some cases particularly regarding the lived world of young people, though not exclusively – paint the following picture:
the everyday lives of many people are characterised by a lack of mindfulness in their interactions with others, as well as by a fast-paced lifestyle and a sense of stress. Despite the many communication media and channels, many people suffer from a loss of genuine connection – with other people, with the world, but also with themselves. At the same time, the many digital possibilities tempt us into believing that everything is feasible and plannable, which has led to an obsession with optimisation on many levels. Genuine experiences of resonance, characterised by the fact that they cannot be planned, are being lost. Yet it is these experiences that give our lives meaning. When everyone is expected to achieve everything, the space for recognising diversity – and with it the dignity of the individual – is lost. The constant confrontation with the major crises of our time – countless wars and climate change – leads to a growing sense of paralysis and a feeling of being at the mercy of a globalised world. We can observe this particularly in younger people, but also in adults. This makes it all the more important that we regain our self-efficacy as an essential pillar of our future viability. Theory U speaks of ‘social soil’. This refers to the quality of social interaction and the experience of ‘agency’. So-called ‘Islands of Coherence’ can provide a counterbalance to the feeling of being at the mercy of global events. Within a manageable community of people who draw strength and confidence from an active and cooperative commitment to a shared idea, we can regain our sense of agency. In the educational landscape, these observations and insights have led to a range of new approaches to schools and teaching, as well as to a multitude of interesting projects.
An understanding of all these aspects is important for our pedagogical practice. At the same time, we must not lose sight of the teachers themselves, for the phenomena just described, alongside the professional challenges of everyday school life, often contribute to educators feeling helpless and exhausted. A healthy working environment in which a sense of meaningful self-efficacy can flourish is therefore an essential prerequisite for holistic, future-oriented educational institutions – not only for pupils, but also for adults: parents, nursery staff and teachers.
What does this have to do with our online platform?
Our core aim in founding elewa, www.e-learningwaldorf.de, was to use our resources to help teachers understand what they are doing in the classroom, and then feel able to apply this understanding creatively, enriched by their own ideas, in their teaching. Based on the realisation that people who can understand what they are doing, who consider the tasks set for them to be achievable, and who see meaning in their actions, are most likely to develop a sense of coherence which – according to the findings of salutogenesis research – contributes significantly to the development of resilience and thus to long-term health.
In the middle of last year, we set out to find out whether the concept on which elewa was founded is still sustaining and/or whether it might need a shift in perspective or some refinement.
It was during a Theory U workshop, following an assessment of our current situation, that the initial ideas for a new elewa prototype emerged. It became clear that, alongside professional development, a holistic approach to training and development must above all encompass the areas of social interaction in the workplace, as well as personal development and well-being. This also requires a space that encourages us to engage in holistic, lifelong learning. Given the fast-paced nature of modern life, with elewa we want to create spaces even more than before where people who value mindfulness, dignified interaction and creative cooperation can work together and learn from one another: as participants and users of existing courses and online dialogues, but also as providers and designers of their own offerings, thereby expanding and deepening the existing programme. The idea for an “online co-learning and co-working space” was born.
Connecting the inner and the outer to bring a vision to life
Over the course of an exciting design process that followed, the idea evolved further, the contours were refined, and the whole concept took shape in the form of a new website and visual identity. It is important to us to clearly highlight the diversity of our offerings and the flexibility this brings to the learning process. Some people love listening to a podcast on their way to work. Others prefer reading a blog article over a cup of coffee or tea. And still others look forward to the opportunity to meet other people in an online dialogue and engage in a collegial exchange.
In the ten years since the launch of the online platform www.e-learningwaldorf.de, a whole range of online courses has been developed for (Waldorf) teachers, educators and those interested in (Waldorf) education. Theoretical materials are linked with insights from practice and combined with suggestions for practical research and various reflective tasks. These courses – known as ‘learning journeys’ – are more than just a transfer of knowledge. They invite adults to embark on creative, transformative and thus sustainable learning journeys!
We have grouped these courses into five learning fields, ranging from pedagogical foundations, through various subject areas and topics, as well as questions of self-governance and school management, to the area of health and personal development. A separate learning field is dedicated to the currently pressing area of media education and creativity.
The holistic approach in our offering – the combination of thinking, feeling and willing – is reflected in the form of three learning spaces: the experience space, the meeting space and the thinking space. By organising our content from this perspective, we aim to provide our users with a diversity-sensitive choice between different learning pathways and to consciously design our offerings to be neuro-diverse and multimodal. Whilst some offerings, such as reading a blog or listening to a podcast, can be clearly assigned to one of these spaces, various spaces will overlap, particularly in the case of the learning journeys. As we are focused on a holistic experience, we have assigned the learning journeys to the experience space.
Elewa as a space of coherence: willingness to cooperate and mindfulness in interaction
The original impuls for an online platform included the idea that various seminars and training centres would provide their own online offerings on the elewa site, so that people seeking further training in (Waldorf) education could access them via a central platform. Whilst this idea of synergy at an institutional level has so far met with only an initial response, some individual providers and European projects have recognised the added value of a shared platform and are using elewa for their offerings.
In line with the aforementioned vision of an “online co-learning and co-working space”, we intend to focus even more strongly on the aspect of the learning community in future. We see elewa as an island of coherence, a virtual space where people come together who want to learn together and from one another, who value mindfulness in their interactions, who think and feel in a way that is sensitive to diversity, and who want to contribute through their actions to making the world a better place for themselves and for others. These may be educators or parents who are committed to a healthy childhood and adolescence through sustainable educational work or upbringing, and who wish to further their training and development with the help of online resources. However, this could also include people who are particularly drawn to the concept of a co-working space, who share the vision of mindfulness and cooperation, and who wish to contribute to a diverse, holistic programme of activities through their own courses or events – whether online or in combination with in-person sessions.
The fact that, thanks to funding from the Association of Independent Waldorf Schools in Germany and various foundations, most online offerings have so far been free of charge for participants, does not in any way preclude us from including fee-based courses or other offerings in the future.
If our ideas appeal to you, please feel free to get in touch with us 🙂
So, in keeping with the growth and development of nature around us, we are now embarking on a new phase for elewa-eLearningWaldorf e.V. We hope to meet many of you during our offerings and to find and get to know both interested users and new co-creators for our “Online Co-Learning and Co-Working Space”. We are excited to see what the coming years will bring!
Ulrike Sievers