How Waldorf School graduates cope with the challenges they face during military service: a ten-year overview

Abstract

Abstract. This article reviews part of a study that dealt with how graduates of the Waldorf School integrate into Israeli society, as seen from their perspective. The purpose of the study was to explore how Waldorf School graduates integrate into society on completing high school, and examine the nature and quality of life readiness that the Waldorf educational method provides its graduates. Three main areas of life were reviewed in the study: graduates in the one-year volunteer framework, in the regular military framework, and in academic studies. Of these, the current study reviews only the area of military service. The study applied qualitative methodology, including semi-structured interviews with 46 graduates of the Waldorf School in Harduf, Israel, following twelve full years of study. This is the first study of Waldorf-educated graduates ever conducted worldwide relying solely qualitative methodology, and the only study conducted in Israel thus far. The study’s main conclusion is that the Waldorf School, as an education system emphasizing artistic and creative manifestation, hands-on work, a connection with nature, warm personal relationships, and an absence of exams and grades, can produce graduates who see themselves as successfully cope with the challenges they face following completion of school, and in this particular case, the challenges of coping with military service in the IDF. One of the questions surfacing from the study is whether it is possible to implement Waldorf School methods and approaches fully or partially also in the framework of other governmental education systems.

Keywords: Waldorf education, empirical research, qualitative methodology, military service, Israelian society, coping, resilience, internal values, self-esteem