Fostering Curriculum for Excellence teachers’ freedom and creativity through developing their intuition and imagination: some insights from Steiner-Waldorf education

Abstract

Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) in Scotland aims for young people to develop into responsible citizens, confident individuals, successful learners and effective contributors. It recognises teachers need more ‘freedom to teach in innovative and creative ways’ (Scottish Executive 2006a: 16). I argue that in the light of these proposals, changes are needed to the professional standards for teachers in Scotland and possibly also to teacher education courses, as teachers will need to become freer and more creative to allow them to exemplify the aims of CfE. However, even if understood in a commonsensical way, creativity and freedom are not currently explicit in the ITE Standards. Looked at with a deeper understanding of what creativity and freedom could mean, CfE could be seen as providing real opportunities for teachers and pupils alike, but ITE standards are then seriously lacking in addressing this. As the ideas of freedom and creativity have long been highly valued in the Steiner-Waldorf (SW) sector, I will draw on Steiner’s philosophy of freedom to argue that the development of teachers’ intuition and imagination should be the foundation for their creativity and freedom.