How do teacher educators affect their students?

This article explores how Steiner teacher educators influence the development of student teachers, not only through curriculum and pedagogy but through their own inner life. Drawing on Rudolf Steiner’s pedagogical law, it outlines the “chain of influence” whereby each part of the human being develops under the guidance of the next higher member in the adult. Central is the idea of the Spirit Self—the part of the self gradually formed when a person transforms their impulses, emotions, and inner life through truthfulness and conscious self‑development. The piece argues that genuine teacher education requires this ongoing inner work, as who the educator is profoundly shapes those they teach.