The material presented here is an exploratory version of the ultimate curriculum framework. It will be further developed over the course of 2026.

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Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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A common core curriculum for advocacy and professional development

Steiner Waldorf schools share many values and are based on a common understanding of the nature of the developing human being that was originally developed by Rudolf Steiner in the first Waldorf school in Germany. On the basis of this pedagogical anthropology, educational practices have been developed that are common to all Steiner Waldorf educational institutions, early years settings, schools, and teacher education programmes. Since its origins in 1919, this educational approach has been developed and expanded and is practiced in 28 European countries (and 70 countries world-wide).

Waldorf education is always adapted to the national educational culture and so Waldorf education has been developed to reflect those national and cultural expectations and requirements. Many national Waldorf federations who are members of the European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education (ECSWE) are experiencing increasing demands to show their national or regional education authorities what their common Waldorf principles and practices are, including the curriculum. Some countries, especially those with fewer schools and resources, have not yet published accepted national Waldorf curricula and use modified translations from the current English or German and even older versions. Other countries such as Norway, Flanders, the UK, and Germany do have published curricula, with varying degrees of official status. ECSWE has recognised the need for a common core curriculum framework that can be used for inspiration.

This common core curriculum is based on best practices from the existing curricula and also includes innovations developed more recently in research projects. It is not binding but serves as a resource and orientation for national federations.

What all schools have in common is a shared pedagogical anthropology and a set of generative principles derived from this understanding of the developing child and young person. Steiner Waldorf education takes a developmental perspective and works with an ideal-typical model of developmental processes which are deemed to be meaningful for heterogeneous learning groups in same-age-based classes. This model is not normative and does not specify how children and young people should be at any given age but it is rather a sequence of learning opportunities that respond to the developmental tasks facing children and young people today.

It is a core Waldorf principle that pupils of the same age are taught in mixed groups together and are offered a curated series of developmental tasks to stimulate their learning and the development of core competences through the various curriculum subjects. The teaching method orientates itself on this ideal-typical developmental sequence and the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are deemed essential to learning. We can show this in the following graphic.

Whilst this ideal-typical sequence of developmental tasks is considered common to all Steiner Waldorf schools, the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be learned are determined nationally (though there are broad commonalities). Each national federation advises its member schools what the core curriculum content should be across the subject disciplines. The ECSWE common core curriculum offers a macro-level set of developmental tasks. For purposes of research, national federations can get guidance and advice on detailed curriculum questions on the meso level from experts and ECSWE's current best practice curriculum examples.

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The cover illustration was created with OpenAI’s DALL-E image generator using extracts of the common core curriculum framework as prompts