Although Canada is a very large country with many Waldorf initiatives in various stages of progress, there are currently only 25 Waldorf early childhood programs in five of the ten provinces.
Waldorf early childhood education came to Canada with the 1968 founding of the Toronto Waldorf School in Ontario, closely followed by the 1969 founding of the Vancouver Waldorf School in British Columbia. Many of these schools were part of the burgeoning growth of the North American Waldorf movement in the 1970s and are mostly clustered in British Columbia and Ontario, although there are long-term established schools in Quebec, Alberta, and Nova Scotia. Some schools in Canada receive partial government funding.
Working together. The 25 Waldorf kindergartens in Canada are members of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN) and work closely together with Early Childhood Programs in the United States.
Training. Schools and programs that receive government funding have caregivers who have completed training in both Waldorf and mainstream early childhood education. All other group leaders are expected to have completed their Waldorf training. There are three WECAN-approved early childhood teacher education institutes in Canada – The Rudolf Steiner Centre Toronto (RSCT) in Ontario, founded in 1978, the West Coast Institute for Studies in Anthroposophy (WCI) in British Columbia, founded in 1996, and the Institut Rudolf Steiner au Québec in Montreal, founded in 1990. All three work with the IASWECE Guidelines and WECAN Shared Principles.
Ruth Ker is the WECAN Teacher Education Coordinator and director of the Early Childhood Teacher Education Program at the West Coast Institute for Studies in Anthroposophy on Vancouver Island, British Colombia, Canada.
Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN)