Detecting and validating the application of the components of Rudolf Steiner's educational perspective in the elementary school curriculum:  A Mixed Method Study

Saeedi, Mahdi; Karimi, Mohammad Hasan; Alborzi, Mahboobeh; Marzoghi, Rahmat Allh

Detecting and validating the application of the components of Rudolf Steiner's educational perspective in the elementary school curriculum: A Mixed Method Study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Foundations of Education, Faculty of Education and psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

² Department of Educational Science, Faculty of Education and psychology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to discover and validate the application of the components of Rudolf Steiner's educational perspective in the primary school curriculum. This study benefits from an exploratory sequential mixed methods design. The research community of the qualitative section has been all of Steiner's available writings in the field of education, and in the quantitative section, were curriculum planning specialists, who were purposefully selected. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative part data and confirmatory factor analysis was used in the quantitative part. The results of the qualitative part indicated the identification of 30 basic themes, 6 organizing themesand one Global theme. The organizing themes include epistemology, three-dimensional "I", holistic and evolutionary view of humans, the correspondence between the existential dimensions of man and existence, the spiritual existence of man and its importance and the evolutionary process of consciousness. The quantitative part also showed the high validity of the mentioned model. Based on the results, in the curriculum of the elementary school, the anthropological view in education, using the dimensions and capacities of art and paying attention to the spiritual aspects of human education in creating harmony with existence has validity.

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