Steiner Teacher
Training Pathway

The Advanced Diploma in Rudolf Steiner Education provides a pathway to a Bachelor of Education at the following Australian universities: University of Technology in Sydney; Deakin University in Melbourne and the Charles Darwin University. Students who have successfully completed the Advanced Diploma may receive credit for the first two years of a Bachelor of Education degree. Upon successful completion of their studies, graduates have the flexibility and opportunity to teach in Rudolf Steiner schools as well as government and other independent schools in Australia.

Through this course, Sydney Rudolf Steiner College offers a unique approach to teacher training. The program involves two years of full time study, rich in philosophy, the arts and educational practice. Students balance creative and personal development with (the foundations of professional practice/a thorough grounding in educational theory).

The Professional Development stream further develops the student’s foundational knowledge and experience by studying child development, the Steiner curriculum and teaching methodology with a practical placement in schools. The Personal Development stream is a pre-requisite.

This pathway to teaching strives to transform our understanding of the nature of childhood and the delivery of education. A comprehensive description of the syllabus can be found here.

VET FEE-HELP, provided by our RTO Melbourne Rudolf Steiner Seminar, and Austudy are available

We call Personal Development stream the Parsifal Journey, after the medieval epic Parzival, which offers a very modern portrait of the inner development of a hero. This part of the course aims to unfold self-awareness, creativity, and meaningful engagement with society. The preparatory groundwork is laid here for a lifelong training in self-awareness and creativity through our comprehensive arts-based program. Meaningful engagement is developed through philosophic dialogue, meditation exercises and reflective practice.

This stream is the essential foundation for becoming a Steiner teacher, where the qualities of initiative, creativity and perceptiveness are established. But it may also be taken as a non-assessable path (in adult education) for self-development and artistic exploration.

 
Students may do this stream simply as an opportunity to rethink their life journey.

The Professional Development stream focuses on the theory and practice of Steiner Education. It balances Steiner educational philosophy with curriculum studies, practical experience and mentoring in classrooms but it also stretches trainees in all directions— socially, intellectually, physically, and artistically—to help them develop the capacities needed to inspire their teaching.

The personal development of the individual becomes a path of professional practice, concerned with ethical responsibilities to society, the parent community, the school and the education of the child as well as the ability to communicate effectively out of a conscious understanding of their own life path and worldview.

Trainees are encouraged to continually develop themselves, so that they can teach out of themselves, not out of a system. They continue the creative journey, since Steiner education is, above all, an art.