This paper studies newspaper articles from Svenska Dagbladet, Dagens Nyheter, Aftonbladet and Expressen between 1949 and 1960 to see what is written about the anthroposophical Kristofferskolan. The paper intends to investigate and answer how Kristofferskolan and the Waldorf pedagogy are presented in these articles, if there are critical voices in the articles and how these express themselves, but also to what extent life view is addressed in the articles. The survey is a qualitative discourse analytical method to see how these representations are made and what the content of the articles has for meaning. The theory that the essay has to relate to is what David Thurfjell calls the secularization hypothesis, which aims to see if society and the people in it go from the clerical to the more individualized life view. Kristofferskolan and its pedagogy are largely presented in all articles positively, and as an appreciated healthy pedagogical wind that could give the ordinary school advice on how it can be improved. The critical voices that were in the articles were just aimed at the ordinary school, which seemed to be stuck in the same pedagogical methods it always used. Where, according to the articles, journalists considered that the new unit school should look at the Waldorf pedagogy. Critical voices were also directed against the decisions that the state claimed not to grant Kristofferskolan state subsidies. Furthermore, relatively little was written about life view in connection with Kristofferskolan. In a couple of articles there was written about anthroposophy and its influence on the pedagogy used at the school. What was noted by the journalists was mainly that Kristofferskolan in some sense is a school for everyone, not a confessional school only for children whose parents belong to the Anthroposophical Society, or that it is a rich man's school for the most wealthy.

The study delves into reasons and arguments why Kristofferskolan, the first Waldorf school in Sweden, was able to get financial aid from the government in a time when it was unthinkable to support private schools in Sweden. From the 1950s until the 1990s publicly controlled schools were the norm in the Swedish school system and private schools were systematically dismantled. The government of this time motivated the objective of centralization with it being a democratization process to achieve equality. The public-school system was transformed during the 1950s and this transformation needed inspiration. Ironically this was found in private schools such as Kristofferskolan since it had a unique pedagogy, waldorf pedagogy. The study draws the conclusion that a long period of persuasion from the actors supporting the school’s principles was set into play, in which to convince the government of allowing the privately-operated school to be able to base the education on waldorf pedagogy. The reason why the school could flourish during these times was proved to come down to forces not foreseen by first glance. Lobbyism by the founders of Kristofferskolan to get the media on their side was discovered to be one of the utmost reasons to how the school could convince the government of providing subsidies yearly. The study was made using the method argumentation analysis and qualitative text analysis.