Let’s Decolonize Our English Lessons!

Erziehungskunst | Your project is called Developing a racism-critical and diversity-sensitive reading program for the English department. How did this come about?

Neele Hüneberg | When I joined the Waldorf School in Bremen as a teacher six years ago, I quickly realized in preparation for my English lessons that the readings distributed by the Pedagogical Research Center hardly reflected diversity – both in terms of the narratives and the characters, but also in relation to the authors. As part of my final thesis, I then wrote a letter to the research center and used one book as an example to show where racism is also present in individual stories and where Eurocentric perspectives are embedded in the narrative of these books. This brought me into contact with the managing director of the research center, Christian Boettger. Apparently there was already an awareness of these connections at the Pedagogical Research Center, but it only became a project with my initiative.

EK | And then what happened next?

NH | First of all, it was discussed that within a research group, which Mirjam Nuenning joined in January 2024, all English textbooks should be reviewed against the background of diversity-sensitive and racism-critical criteria. We had to decide which stories should continue to be distributed by the Pedagogical Research Center. We also asked ourselves which perspectives we were dealing with in the texts so far and which voices we wanted to hear in our books later on. We had a lot of discussions and thought about which texts we should clearly state that it is no longer justifiable to read them with students today, which texts only require didactic notes or an expanded rewrite, and which texts can still be used today. That was the first part of the project.

Mirjam Nuenning | We have launched a call and are looking for authors to write new texts or workbooks. In addition to the Waldorf-specific criteria for foreign language readings, these new stories should meet the requirements of diversity-conscious educational materials that are critical of discrimination and racism. We are also planning a collection of poetry and a homepage with literature recommendations for the upper school, which we will make available to teachers.

MN | The English-speaking world is very large, partly due to colonialism. There are many countries in the Caribbean, Africa or Asia where English is either a living language or one of the official languages. We are also interested in giving people from the entire English-speaking world a voice in our readings. For example, books written in Pidgin English, such as Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa, are also interesting for English classes.

NH | We are launching the project with anti-racism training for all project participants who are white. The training will be carried out by Phoenix e.V. Among those invited are people from the project Zukunft. Machen, who advise and co-finance us, and employees from the Pedagogical Research Center and Erziehungskunst. It was clear to us from the outset that this project would also include awareness-raising and training for everyone involved in the project. There will also be expert rounds on specific topics three to four times during the project. Most recently, we held such a roundtable on the topic of workbooks and vocabulary work because we also want to provide further didactic training.

NH | The illustrations are just as important. What and who is actually depicted and who is not? We also hope that the anti-racism workshop will have a scatter effect because it brings together different participants from different institutions. At the moment, we are trying to initiate change processes in a small cosmos. But this is only a small piece of the puzzle. But the follow-up questions will be exciting: where does our project connect with the teachers and colleagues? There are a lot of networking steps that are gradually being taken, but we are still at the very beginning.

EK | Why could English lessons be the way they have been for so long??

MN | One phenomenon is that most Waldorf schools are very homogeneous white spaces and I suspect that many Waldorf schools thought that they didn't have to deal with these issues because it didn't concern them. I think that people come to these schools out of a very high idealism and deal a lot with being human and being a child, but perhaps they don't see that there is this huge area that has shaped us and our society for centuries. And if the schools are very white, then people may not even notice when racism is reproduced in the literature. In terms of content and education, many families of color certainly also associate something with Waldorf, but they also see how white these spaces are and then possibly hear about racist statements by Steiner and then stay away.

NH | I think it is a very unpleasant confrontation for many people. Unlearning racism is an active and, for many people, an emotional process. It is not enough to publish the Stuttgart Declaration, in which Waldorf schools speak out against racism and discrimination, on a school's homepage.

EK | Is there any criticism about your project? Are there people who feel insecure about your work?

MN | There is a great fear of losing something and a fear of confronting one's own issues or shadows.

EK | What about prospective Waldorf teachers, where do you think they stand?

MN | There are always requests for workshops from faculties. These requests are increasing. It's often younger teachers who initiate them, but sometimes they also come from students. One person on my training course to become a Waldorf teacher dropped out because she lacked a critical examination of our pedagogy in terms of racism. She couldn't justify continuing at all. Another colleague had exactly the same experience and, together with other fellow students, formed a working group on Waldorf education that is critical of racism at that time.

NH | I notice that some students are much further along than we are and are also very interested in dealing with the injustice they feel. Some teachers, on the other hand, find it very difficult to find words at all: How do I actually talk about racism and discrimination properly? This is a very sensitive topic. And you need the right tools for it. As a white teacher, you first have to reflect on yourself and position yourself. You also need vocabulary and suggestions on how to talk to students about the topic. So far, this has not been embedded either in Waldorf teacher training or in state teacher training.

EK | What is your vision of decolonial literature in the classroom??

NH | Our suggested texts are not about taking away or deleting, but about expanding, rethinking, reconsidering and making more pluralistic. Ultimately, it's about ensuring that all children have opportunities to identify. And we don't assume that this will run smoothly. But even if there are discussions and friction, I still find it very worthwhile and essential to do this work.

EK |  So-called Critical Whiteness workshops deal with the social construct of whiteness and the associated issues of power, privilege and internalized racism. What do you think of a mandatory Critical Whiteness seminar for every prospective teacher or for those who are already teachers?

NH | Absolutely important and right. We would both definitely support that. A workshop like this is part of the prevention of violence and protection concept that all Waldorf schools have now developed. Protection against discrimination must be firmly integrated into these concepts and this simply means that the people who work there must also become aware of the various forms of discrimination from which we must protect the children and their families. We can only do this if we do our homework and see where we might be internalizing, passing on and living such stereotypes or images.

MN | Incidentally, many American Waldorf schools have begun to take a critical look at racism in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. For example, they have developed «diversity statements» and posted them on their website and introduced mandatory anti-racism training for staff. We can also follow suit here in Germany.

NH | I have the feeling that something has been initiated with this project that gives us the chance to bring about positive changes for a more diverse Waldorf world.

Heidi Käfer conducted the interview.