Small group for ‘folk educators’

[terryloane]

Please join this group if you have an interest in working at the edge (or beyond the edge) of the system!

So what do I mean by a folk educator? I think of a folk educator as someone who operates outside, or at the edges of, institutional systems of education and training. The folk educator is likely to be interested in any, but not necessarily all, of the following:

• collaborative approaches to learning
• creativity
• developing critical thinking skills
• open rather than closed curricula
• democratic approaches to learning and learning for democracy
• working with adults
• working with those who have not thrived within formal education

The origins of the folk educator go back the 18th and 19th centuries, to the gritty reality of the Irish hedge schools and the lofty ideals of NFS Grundtvig. But in the 21st century the technology of the Internet is facilitating a new generation of folk educators who, for example, upload ‘how to’ videos to YouTube.

I talk of ‘folk educators’ rather than ‘folk education’ to emphasise the importance of people rather than a ‘system’ in this approach. Both the individual practitioner and the informal group can, I believe, be folk educators.

Terry Loane

[milliken]

Hi

 

Could I join your group. I am a mainstream teacher but I am interested in home schooling and the use of technology to enhance learning outside the classrooom.

David

[philtubman]

i’d like to be in this group. folk education sounds very interesting to me…

[ScottJohnson]

This sounds very interesting. As someone who worked in the trades for many years training apprentices (while never receiving training myself in how to do this) the idea of folk (or feral as I prefer) educators forming a pack seems very inviting. I’m also facinated with the notion of a Learning Society as in the whole landscape accomodating learning as an entirely normal state of being as opposed to the current norm where simply questioning is apparently a form of subversion (not that it shouldn’t be).

My qualifications are to be currently working on trades courses designed to upgrade mechanics to higher level thinking balanced by being fired from that job on June 30.

[terryloane]

That’s great David, Phil and Scott. We have a group of (at least) four.
By the way Scott, I quite like the ‘feral’ idea – but I think our group should still welcome people who do not regard themselves as the educational equivalent of wild street cats 🙂
Terry Loane

[Tim Herrick]

Thanks, Terry, for starting this group – and I am very interested in many of the areas you identify.  My house-cat side involves working in a university and, metaphorically if not literally, having a cosy fire to return to every evening – while my feral cat side means while I’m here, I’m teaching adults often from non-traditional backgrounds; researching and teaching stuff about the de-schooling movement of the 1960s and 70s; and striving to be as engaged as possible with creative methods of learning and teaching.  And, coming back to this MOOCy business, am interested in the potential for these more social-media style learning environments to genuinely open up the goods of higher education to a wider sector of society.  I look forward to exploring with this group as the course goes on!

[Doug Gowan]

I am one of the course tutors and would also like to be part of this group.

I have spent a lot of time developing trade union and community education, with a huge emphasis on active and collaborative methods and learner involvement in decision making. A lot of this predates what has come to be called ‘social constructivism’. There is a reat opportunity to push on further with intelligent use of technology.

[GraphDesProject]

Hello,

I have joined a couple of other groups (art and design/distance learning) but this group sounds cool and a bit rebellious so I’d like to join. I am not sure where my educating future is heading so this group sounds like it will throw up all sorts of possibilities and ideas.

Currently I tutor (prog leader)  f2f and blended learning in HE; and online distance to all sorts of uninstitutional learners, inc homeschoolers who are very forward with collaborative learning, flipped classrooms, unschooling etc.

Sancha @GraphDesProject

[Carolyn Jones]

Hi – I would like to join this group; I have been ‘lurking’ around the periphery of the course for too long!  I am interested in setting up a self help group for older learners so that they don’t get passed over in this digital age.  I believe there is a wealth of expertise and experience out there which can be fruitfully and reciprocally brought to bear in the process of intergenerational learning.  My own focus of interest is in the personalisation of learning.  I am a retired lecturer at university level – some time ago I was involved in a collaborative project with Futurelab and Cardiff University and put together a research proposal on the topic.  I find the realm of open sourced, collaborative, participatory pedagogy incredibly exciting – and potentially liberating for a wide range of people Of all ages.

I have always had a tendency to think – and behave – ‘outside the box’.  I welcome all that this group has to offer and I hope I will be able to contribute something helpful too.

[ScottJohnson]

Hi Carolyn,
Good idea to involve older learners. As governments hack away at education budgets there’s certainly a need for renewed participation in education from all groups in society. The internet has to potential to break the isolation many people feel and this includes the impression of no longer being needed or wanted while we are also told we “lack the resources” to have anything better than the garbage we are expected to live with.

There’s a group in the US that matches “retired” people with needed skills to projects that are short of funding. I’ll see if I can find it and post the URL here. My participation here has been limited as I’m dealing with being fired at the college where I work. On the one hand, there’s the temptation to be helpful to the organization I still have a connection to and the other is to say the hell with it.

[Carolyn Jones]

That sounds like a useful linkScott.  I know of so many clever and skilled people who feel unwanted and discarded by the organisations they ave given a lifetime of service to; I have always felt that there is a wealth of talent, wisdom and expertise to be drawn upon for the benefit of all – providing an effective platform cabin be found to disseminate it.

It seems you are caught up in a maelstrom of this kind at the moment with your job being terminated so soon.  Remember that the Chinese symbol for ‘crisis’ has 2 interlocking components – one representing ‘threat and despair’ and the other ‘opportunity and hope’.  In any crisis situation there is the possibility of moving in one of these directions.  I hope the latter proves the case for you.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could work together as a group to overcome some of the ageist attitudes so prevalent today and utilise  some of these talents.  I believe that there is the potential fr something hugely significant to come out of such an endeavour.

Carolyn

[Author]

Posts