Zur Anthropologie der Waldorfpädagogik - Ein bewusstseinsphänomenologischer Zugang

Abstract

Once again, the mainstream reception of Waldorf pedagogy in educational science has been condensed in Heiner Ullrich’s dictum of a ‘remarkable practice entangled with dubious theory’ (Ullrich, 2015, S. 173). The present article, taking up Albert Schmelzer’s critical response to Ullrich (Schmelzer, 2016), deals with the pedagogical-anthropological dimension of this field of tension. Initially, with a historical-systematical intention, anthropological levels of reflection or research attitudes, respectively, are distinguished which are leading to ‘positive’ conceptions (claiming certain anthropological features) or ‘negative’ conceptions (abstaining from any codified idea of humankind). The critical discussion of these accounts shows that their inner contradictions and apodictic confrontation challenge the development of a new, integrative level of analysis. This could be designated as a methodical way of human self-description which processually becomes aware of itself by enhancing and cultivating the first-person perspective. Through performing, reflecting and describing everyday routines of consciousness (cognition, perception, etc.) increasingly aware, the anthropological core of self-description could be exposed. From here, on the basis of exemplary introspective or meditative observation series, the concept of the essential layers of the human being underlying Waldorf pedagogy and its developmental motive are developed and discussed in the context of other anthropological approaches.