Slow education from a historical perspective: conceptualization, development and its concretion in Waldorf Childminders in Spain

Abstract

This article focuses on the development and concretion of slow education in the initiatives of Waldorf Childminders. These initiatives are a branch of homeschooling for the stage of early childhood education in which an education professional takes charge in their own home of 4 or 5 children whose ages range from four months to five years. Childminders emerge as a questioning to the acceleration of pedagogical times and propose an alternative care to childhood in tune with the principles of slow education. In this sense, the first objective of this article is to explore the theoretical links of the Childminders with the slow education. Subsequently, Waldorf proposal for early childhood education is addressed in historical and theoretical perspective. This research concludes with an analysis of some of the most outstanding aspects of the Waldorf Childminders in Spain, such as their historical background, existing regulation, training of these professionals, the reasons that motivate the choice of these projects by families, the structure of a day, as well as the most important critics towards this type of initiatives.

Key words: Slow education, Waldorf education, Childminder, Rudolf Steiner, early childhood education.