February 12th
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A central tenet of our charity’s work is to support high-quality and reputable research into creative and holistic education. This involves engaging with a wide variety of stakeholders to advance our collective understanding of creative and holistic education, and advanced the vision of making it accessible to all children.
With that in mind, we’re delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Ruhi Tyson to lead the first stage of this research project on Multisensory Integration in education. Selected after an international call for proposals, his expertise will guide this groundbreaking initiative, which aims to enhance educational policy and practice by exploring the role of multisensory integration as a foundation for all subsequent learning.
As a brief introduction to multisensory integration, please see Charlotte Davis’ TED talk “Saving our children by checking the obvious.” It’s a powerful call to understanding healthy, holistic and integrated approaches to education provision and her dedication to the subject played an important part in our own exploration.
Paul Hougham, Chief Executive of Waldorf Learning Foundation, expressed appreciation for the potential impact this project will have on schools’ capacities to be more systematically inclusive and to support all children in their development and learning.
“Projects like this are truly strengthened when a variety of partners contribute not just time and resources, but also their vision and strategic insight. We’re excited to work collaboratively through each stage of this important research. I’d also like to extend my gratitude to the many academics and researchers who helped shape the initial Request for Proposals over the past year, as well as to the individuals, teams, and research centres who expressed interest in contributing to this groundbreaking project.”
Dr. Tyson holds a number of positions across Waldorf Education, including Associate Professor in Education at the Institutionen för pedagogic och didaktik, Stockholm University, and Bookbinding Teacher at the Kristofferschool, Bromma. He is also Education Manager for the Recreational Teacher Programme at the Stockholm WaldorfLärarhögskolan (Waldorf Teacher Training College).Ruhi commented:
“At stake is our understanding of the human being as an embodied being and how to take this seriously in education.
Waldorf pedagogy has always had a strong emphasis on aesthetic and practical subjects in school. At the same time relevant research from pedagogy, psychology, medicine, developmental studies, etc. is scattered and seldom explicitly situated in an educational context. There is a need here to review and synthesize current research in order to better understand these subject areas. An initial mapping of the studies available would be of great help not just for Waldorf pedagogy but for pedagogical research and practice more generally.”
The wide context for this project is a crucial element of its potential success, and we are grateful for the support of the Stockholm WaldorfLärarhögskolan (Waldorf Teacher Training College) Rektor (Principle), Caroline Bratt also commented on Ruhi’s involvement and the college’s support for this research project:
“Waldorf educators have experience and knowledge of working with aesthetic and practical subjects and methods, but at the same time the formulated knowledge isn’t obvious. For Waldorf education/pedagogy itself, it is important to both be updated on relevant research and also initiate and conduct research projects. It might also be of value to others that we, as Waldorf educators, take this seriously. The field of aesthetic and practical methods is one in which Waldorf pedagogy, with its long experience, should be able to contribute to education and pedagogy as a whole – in both a Nordic and larger international context.”
The initial call for proposals for the project was extensive and wide ranging, but centred around a literature review of research into the application of Multisensory Integration and Motor Skills Development (MSI & MSD) in global pedagogies (educational philosophies, policies and practices) and therapeutic models and provision. This approach would have a specific focus on relevant curricula, assessment and intervention frameworks, in relationship to the parallel disciplines of occupational health, educational psychology, neurophysiology, and sports science, and with reference to neurology and evolutionary anthropology. (See our original call for proposals below).
Stage one of the research will be complete by the autumn and we look forward to updating you with the results then.
Download the original RfP here:
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