(Re)inhabiting Waldorf Education: Honolulu Teachers Explore the Notion of Place

Abstract

This article tells of an unfinished journey we took with a group of teachers in Honolulu as we investigate and navigate notions of place and belonging. We explain how we are developing and transforming relationships with our values-embodied expressions of aloha and anthroposophy - and how we are challenging previously held ideas. The journey is being taken against the backdrop of the Steiner Waldorf curriculum with the idea of disrupting tradition by discussing the 'un-sayable' and, through this, to allow an original, authentic living educational theory to evolve; we believe that (re)inhabiting the curriculum is necessary for meaningful, relevant teaching. As part of the research, the teachers in this community prepare for an audit of their curriculum, possibly the first of its kind in a Waldorf school. We offer a series of snapshots taken along the way following an action research model and laying out our living educational theory, involving discussion groups, artistic responses, engagement with local communities, and practical projects.