ABSTRACT
Collaborative governance, which is integral to the self-concept of Waldorf schools, presents an ongoing challenge. In the early years, this was compensated for by the authority of its spiritual founder, Rudolf Steiner, who himself took charge of the school from 1919 to 1924. It was not until after 1945, and above all from the 1960s, that active parents began to play a more prominent role in the school associations and in the schools themselves. In recent decades, a number of business consultants assisted school communities overwhelmed by these social processes in finding ever-new organizational structures or school cultures. The dual function of the state in the education system did not change much after 1945, since the state continued to both operate and supervise schools. The principle of collaborative governance and of the autonomy of teachers is derived from the principle of a “free spiritual life” included in Steiner's social threefolding idea.
