How can Ruskin Mill Trust ensure coherence of understanding and implementation of its educational method Practical Skills Therapeutic Education (PSTE), which is informed by Rudolf Steiner’s educational insights, through all levels of the organisation?

This study explores the question ‘How can Ruskin Mill Trust (RMT) ensure coherence of understanding and implementation of its educational method, Practical Skills Therapeutic Education (PSTE), which is informed by Rudolf Steiner’s educational insights, through all levels of the organisation?’ RMT is an educational charity which over the last 40 years has developed a unique educational method for children, young people and adults with a range of challenges, with over 1200 staff in 12 schools and colleges in Wales, England and Scotland. Considering the uniqueness and growth of the charity and the succession of the founder, the study examines the influences that shaped PSTE, the landscape that RMT operates in, the impact of leadership in educational organisations and the process of understanding and implementing an educational method.

The findings from the all-staff survey (n=69), ethnographic workshop observations (13 days), focus groups with direct contact staff (n=2), as well as individual interviews with senior leaders and staff of the organisation (n=15) were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006, 2022). The findings were discussed in three essential questions: How do we understand the method? How do we implement the method (people and systems)? How do we develop the method?

While staff try to understand the method in different ways, they often stumble when it comes to the underlying assumptions, which can challenge their current worldview and often prefer to remain with the day-to-day practical applications which convince. Senior leaders can take this one step further if they are open to and engage firstly in the underlying assumptions and secondly the craft processes, and by doing so transform materials into items of service as well as themselves, engaging in ‘self-generated conscious action’ (Gordon and Cox, 2024). Recommendations for future research, policy and practice within and beyond RMT were made.