Where Children Belong: Waldorf Kindergartens and Colonial Constructions of Childhood

• In Event: Critical Communities as Praxis and Belonging

Abstract

How do assumptions about natural spaces for childhood reinforce colonial understandings of the human? In this paper, I present a case study from a larger project examining the entanglement between colonialism and Waldorf educators’ understandings of childhood. Responding to a repeated emphasis on Waldorf kindergartens as perfect and healthy places for childhood, I explore one early childhood educator’s classroom and his experiences with Waldorf kindergartens. Working from Sylvia Wynter and critical geographies, I argue that the constructed space of the Waldorf kindergarten and the pedagogy it supports naturalize and normalize assumptions about childhood that are not neutral or ahistorical, but instead are rooted in a colonial story of what it means to be human.

Author

• Hunter Knight, University of Toronto