ABSTRACT

In this chapter, I report the fruits of my enquiry, and try to demonstrate the relationship between the quality of the children’s play and salient features of the Steiner educators’ thinking. I will try to establish connections between what the children do in the kindergarten, during the period dedicated to play, and the key concepts around which the Steiner approach to young children is constructed. I will examine the educators’ understanding of children and childhood, the role of the kindergarten teacher, and the whole kindergarten environment, and suggest ways in which mainstream educators, in other kinds of early childhood settings, might learn from their approach.