Three years ago, 26 participants began their training as Waldorf teachers under the auspices of the Association for Waldorf Education in Istanbul, Eğitim Sanatı Dostları Derneği (ESDD). Almost all of them completed the course, finishing in December 2025. Everyone presented their final portfolios and gave presentations, and a video conference with the lecturers from Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands involved in the training rounded off with a fitting and festive celebration. A new course is set to start in January 2027. We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the Friends of Waldorf Education – represented by Nana Göbel – who have provided financial support for the training programme in Turkey since its inception.
Stamina and perseverance, enthusiasm, dedication and a desire to explore the subject matter in depth are the defining characteristics of this course, which began in January 2023. Almost everyone who enrolled at the time completed the course and, in December 2025 – three years later – presented their study portfolios and gave talks featuring extracts from them.
As course leaders, Alfred Rahmen (Langenthal, Switzerland) and I designed a training programme that incorporated a number of innovations. In addition to the 15 one-week training modules and numerous intensive weekends, students set up informal working groups that addressed specific questions from the course between modules. The findings of these groups were discussed and explored in depth with the participants during scheduled online workshops. In addition to addressing the content, the nine workshops in total served above all to foster a sense of cohesion within the training group. Permanent groups formed which could continue to work on current topics even after the training had finished. Another innovation is the introduction of the training portfolio, which is gradually compiled over the course of the training and presented at the end. This new format has replaced the ‘major’ final dissertation that was previously standard.
A distinctive feature of the training group is certainly that the majority of participants work in state schools.
Naturally, the newly established Waldorf School in Istanbul enrolled its teachers in this training programme. However, most of the students work in state schools or privately run educational institutions. Through the lectures and the numerous discussions over the weekend, it became clear that they were able to adapt the fundamentals of Waldorf education in such a way that the new insights benefit the children and young people in their respective institutions. Some colleagues also sensed the students’ different approaches in everyday teaching practice and wanted to know more. In this respect, this graduating cohort may well include a few ‘ambassadors’ here and there who are gently sowing the seeds of the Waldorf approach in the Turkish school system.
“But it certainly also takes courage to present the Waldorf philosophy clearly to a wider audience at an educational confreence,” as Alfred Rahmen put it in his address, encouraging the leaders of the ESDD association to do so.
Birgül Tastan, as president of the ESDD association, took the floor and, at the end of this wonderful weekend, expressed her thanks to the participants and lecturers, as well as the hope that from within this dynamic group, an initiative might emerge to establish another school alongside those in Istanbul and Alanya.
In 2026, the association’s efforts will be pooled and new ideas developed so that the next teacher training course can begin in January 2027.
Jürgen Lohmann