NCITE
Northern California Institute for Transformative Education
at Sacramento Waldorf School
Sacramento Waldorf School is excited to announce that we have formed an institute for adult Waldorf education known as:
NCITE (Northern California Institute for Transformative Education) at Sacramento Waldorf School
NCITE offers a two-year, part-time Waldorf Teacher Education Program. This program has been licensed and approved for operation by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE), within the California State Department of Consumer Affairs.
OUR MISSION AND OBJECTIVES
Mission
Our age calls for new impulses in education that are clear-eyed about the crises and opportunities of our time. We have a deep commitment to educating Waldorf teachers for the 21st century. Our expectation is that individuals will cultivate a rich personal relationship with the foundations of Waldorf education while thoughtfully exploring and iterating its future. Our Institute is intended for individuals interested in teaching in independent Waldorf schools, or who have an interest in learning more about Waldorf education and Anthroposophy.
We believe that Waldorf education, at its heart, is not a series of curricular texts and algorithmic recipes, but rather an approach that puts the developmental needs of the whole child—body, soul, and spirit—but also race, ethnicity, gender expression, learning differences, among others—at the center of our inquiry and love. We recognize that Anthroposophy, the philosophy underpinning Waldorf education, has given, and continues to give, teachers an inestimable gift of a means of deeply understanding the human being and the world, but such an understanding is by no means complete. We are therefore committed to developing more subtle interpretive vocabularies, practices, and ways of knowing, not found in anthroposophy yet, to meet and nurture the extraordinary diversity of human expression today.
OBJECTIVES
We offer three main areas of study: Waldorf education as currently understood, Anthroposophy and its worldview and path of self-transformation, and finally, what our developing insight and intuition might make of Waldorf education in the future. Equally important to these three main areas of focus are the various arts and movement classes that our program offers. Students will explore the educational and transformative geniuses of eurythmy, yoga, dance, Spatial Dynamics, gardening, painting, drawing, poetry, and woodworking, among others.
Participants will be steeped in the Anthroposophical approach to human development and will learn to apply this to the curriculum. Students will do field work observing students and faculty in their classrooms, experiencing the full breadth of a Waldorf classroom’s daily and weekly routines. They will also observe faculty meetings and committee meetings to understand the Waldorf school governance structure. In addition, they will complete two practicums in a Waldorf school. Graduates will receive a certificate that makes them eligible to teach in any Waldorf school for Grades 1-12, depending on the student’s area of concentration.
Waldorf Teacher Education Program
NCITE offers a two-year part-time Waldorf Teacher Education Program. This instruction is equivalent to undergraduate-level college instruction intended for aspiring Waldorf teachers, whether new to teaching or already employed in the profession.
This course of study offers a comprehensive understanding of the Anthroposophical worldview, Rudolf Steiner’s picture of the human being and child development, Waldorf education and its evolving curriculum and teaching methods, as well as the path of the teacher in the 21st Century.
Equally important are the various arts and movement classes that this program provides. Students will explore the educational and transformative geniuses of eurythmy, yoga, dance, Spatial Dynamics, gardening, painting, drawing, poetry, and woodworking, among others. In Waldorf education, we teach not only a given body of knowledge, but with the essence of who we are. Therefore, ours is a wholistic program that values the arts as much as traditional academic subjects.
Our program includes pedagogical theory and child development with artistic and self-development practices woven throughout the curriculum. This includes the ability to observe carefully, to teach creatively, to develop patience, an attitude of equanimity, and a joyful attitude to the work.
Upon completion of the Waldorf Teacher Education Program, a certificate will be presented demonstrating the student is prepared to take up a position as a Waldorf trained teacher in any Waldorf school for Grades 1-12, depending on the student’s area of concentration.
CURRICULUM: YEAR 1 OVERVIEW
In the first year course of study, we provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the Anthroposophical worldview and how it can help them better meet the challenges and opportunities of our times. Specific focuses include Rudolf Steiner’s theory of knowledge (epistemology) and practices of spiritual development and self-transformation; his picture of the human being, child development, and the evolution of consciousness; as well as a variety of arts and movement modalities that develop imaginative capacities. Students will also be asked to put Steiner’s ideas in dialogue with some of the best contemporary thinking. By the end of this first year, students will be steeped in the rich philosophical underpinnings of Waldorf education and ready in the following year to explore and iterate its present and future
CURRICULUM: YEAR 2 OVERVIEW
In the second year students take up the challenge of exploring and iterating the present and future of Waldorf Education. This is the year students get into the classroom and begin to experience how pedagogical ideas are applied in a not-so-theoretical milieu. Studies continue in the arts and anthroposophy, but now they are approached with the mindset of a teacher. Specific focuses include Steiner’s foundational lectures on education, the arc of the Waldorf curriculum, teaching through imagination, curricular arts, building a class ecosystem, and others. Students will continue to be asked to put Steiner’s ideas in dialogue with some of the best contemporary thinking.
NCITE follows the Sacramento Waldorf School Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Justice Commitment to Equity
OUR CAMPUS
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NCITE (NORTHERN CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE FOR TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION AT SACRAMENTO WALDORF SCHOOL IS APPROVED TO OPERATE IN THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA BY THE BUREAU FOR PRIVATE POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION (BPPE) WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS. BPPE APPROVED INSTITUTIONS ARE REQUIRED TO POST SPECIFIC DOCUMENTS ON THEIR WEBSITES. Approval to operate means compliance with state standards as set forth in the Education Code.
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NCITE (Northern California Institute for Transformative Education at Sacramento Waldorf School) 3750 Bannister Road, Fair Oaks, CA 95628 | 916-860-2509