IASWECE provides a meeting place for early childhood educators from many countries who strive to uphold, deepen and renew Steiner/Waldorf early childhood education. The Association gives us, as educators from diverse cultures, the opportunity to get to know and understand one another on an ever-deeper level. Developing relationships of trust, openness and reverence among colleagues, with the young child always at the centre of our vision, is the starting point for educating in freedom and towards freedom.
Our shared task is to ensure that Steiner/Waldorf pedagogy becomes neither a theoretical system nor a collection of set methods, but a wellspring of living, continuously developing insights. We endeavour to serve the healthy development of childhood by nurturing the ability to perceive, through our own self-directed inner activity, not only the physical nature, but also the soul and spirit of the individual.
Through sharing observations and study, we strive to deepen our appreciation of one another’s spiritual individuality – distinctive qualities which at the same time emanate through the sheaths of our given temperament and personality, as well as through the traditions and values of our particular family and community. We recognise that each culture has its own relationship with anthroposophy and Steiner/Waldorf education, thus contributing uniquely to its evolution. We honour the way Steiner/Waldorf early childhood educators work within their specific contexts. While encouraging the autonomy and initiative of each culture and indeed individual, our ultimate endeavour is for the quintessence of anthroposophy and Steiner/Waldorf education to contribute to the furtherance of the ‘whole’ – from family to community to humankind.
Out of our various tasks and ideals comes our intention to participate in a dynamic and artistic process that enables the human spirit of Waldorf pedagogy to light up in the hearts and creative will of educators in all contexts and regions, thus giving our children, in every corner of the world, the opportunity to develop their true and full humanity.
The Council of IASWECE, October 2025