Being a Discoverer or Being Discovered? Curriculum Evaluation of Development-Oriented Waldorf Education in the Philippines

Abstract

Waldorf education is known for its outspoken ideas on personal development. The recent globalization of Waldorf education raises questions about how it is adapted locally. This article addresses Eurocentric elements in the curriculum on the basis of a case study of history education in Grade 7 at a Philippine Waldorf school. Here, the students’ development is mirrored in stories about the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. But can Filipino students identify with Christopher Columbus or Ferdinand Magellan? Are they the discoverers or the discovered in these stories? These are precarious questions in the Philippines’s hybrid cultural context.

KEYWORDS: CURRICULUM EVALUATION, ETHNOGRAPHY, EUROCENTRISM, LOCALIZATION, HISTORY EDUCATION