Using digital tools among children whose families have chosen Waldorf education for them. A case study

Abstract

In the era of continuous development of the digital devices there are a significant number of questions arising regarding the role they play in the lives of individuals and families, what effect they have on the formation of parent-child relationships, what educational strategies parents use when it comes to screen use. In the present case study, I focused on these topics focusing on a special group: I tried to gain insight to the everyday life and habits of those families who chose alternative pedagogy for their children instead of state education. The target group of the study were those mothers who decided in favour of Waldorf educational system and whose children attend the Waldorf School in Târgu Mureș, Transylvania. Some of the questions are related to if Waldorf education method has any kind of principles and/or guidelines for how parents should approach their children’s use of digital devices, and if there are any differences in the digital habits of these children. To investigate this, qualitative research method (structured interview) was used, in order to be able to map the problem from as many dimensions as possible. There were five question groups in the following topics: exploring the reasons for choosing alternative education and its relationship to the use of digital devices; the digital device usage habits appearing in the family; screen time in the family; manifestation of different forms of regulation; and forms of control and punishment exercised in the family. I analysed the resulting text material by using narrative text analysis and discourse analysis. In this process four dimensions of discussion were determined: the relationship between alternative education and digital devices, family dynamics in the light of digital devices, the occurrence of forms of parenting styles and parents’ control strategies.