Self-education through environment: Steiner’s pedagogical principles for early childhood—A hermeneutic analysis

This article presents a hermeneutic analysis of Rudolf Steiner’s pedagogical principles for early childhood education, examining self-education (Selbsterziehung) as the organizing principle of early childhood learning, enacted through three interrelated modes: sensory participation, imitation, and play. Through close reading of Steiner’s original texts and engagement with contemporary educational philosophy—including Biesta’s subjectification, Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of embodiment, and Noddings’ pedagogy of care—we illuminate the philosophical underpinnings of Waldorf early childhood education. Our analysis reveals how these three modes form an integrated developmental pathway through which self-education unfolds: from sensory participation in the environment, through imitation of meaningful activity, to its fullest expression in play. Through this interpretive inquiry, a concept we term holistic engagement gradually emerges—a mode of being in which the young child participates in reality through unified sensory, imitative, and imaginative activity. The Israeli context serves as a case study illustrating how these principles have been received and localized within a culturally diverse setting.