Folk high school
Folk high schools (also adult education center,
Despite similar names and somewhat similar goals, the institutions in Germany and Sweden are quite different from those in Denmark and Norway. Folk high schools in Germany and Sweden are in fact much closer to the institutions known as folkeuniversitet in Norway and Denmark, which provide adult education. However, unlike the folkeuniversitet folk high schools in Sweden are not connected with a regular university. The Finnish adult education centers called työväenopisto and kansalaisopisto (Swedish: arbetarinstitut, literally 'workers' institute') are also part of the adult education tradition.
Other countries have also been inspired by Grundtvig's concept of popular education. In Nigeria, the United States, and India, a few schools have been built upon Grundtvig's principles for education.
History
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The first folk high school was established in 1844 in Rødding, Denmark. The school in Rødding, however, was somewhat aristocratic as chiefly civil servants and rich farmers were enrolled.
Another pioneer for the folk high school was the teacher Christen Kold. His, for that time, highly unorthodox way of teaching gave the folk high schools a broader democratic basis in comparison to the initial religious focus. The teaching took place from November to March because students did farm work the rest of the year. Kold's goal was for students to return to the school regularly in the winter to continue their education. In the beginning only young men could attend the courses, but in 1861 young women also gained access to folk high schools when teaching began being offered from May to July. The men still only attended during winter.
The breakthrough for the idea was the
The modern folk high schools vary significantly. Some still have a religious focus but most of them are secular. The schools are still Grundtvigian folk high schools which means that their focus is on enlightenment,
Philosophy
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The movement started as a row with the old school. Grundtvig fought for a public education as an alternative to the university elite. The folk high schools should be for those wanting to learn in general and to help people form part of human relations and society.
The folk high schools have changed naturally – some also radically – through time, but many of Grundtvig's core ideas about the folk high school are still to be found in the way they are run today. The folk high school of today is engaged in a complex modern reality and influenced both by national, international and global questions.
One of the main concepts still to be found at the folk high schools today is "lifelong learning". The schools should educate for life. They should shed light on basic questions surrounding life of people both as individuals and as members of society.
To Grundtvig the ideal was to give the students a sense of a common best and focusing on life as it really is. Therefore, Grundtvig never set down guidelines for the future schools or a detailed description of how they should be run. He declared that the folk high schools should be arranged and developed according to life as it is and the schools should not hold exams because the education and enlightenment was a sufficient reward.
The essential element was and is the life at the schools. A folk high school becomes what it is because of the individuals of which it is made. Learning happens across social positions and differences – the teacher learns from the student and vice versa in a living exchange and mutual teaching. For Grundtvig dialogue across differences was essential – the ideal was that people must learn to bear with the differences of each other before enlightenment can be realized.[3][4]
Features
The character of folk high schools differ from country to country, but usually institutions have the following common features:
- Large variety of subjects
- No final exams
- A focus on self-development
- Pedagogical freedom
- Courses last between a few months and one year, with per-course fees
- No numerus clausus (entrance exams)
Especially in non-German speaking countries, the folk high schools may be boarding schools or may mainly offer courses for adults age 18–30.
Europe
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In addition to the Nordic countries and Germany there are also folk high schools in Switzerland, Austria, Poland, and France.
Denmark
The first folk high school was founded in
There are around 70 folk high schools in Denmark. The principal subjects of instruction vary from the creative arts such as music, arts, design, writing, to intellectual courses such as religion, philosophy, literature and psychology. Some schools even have courses that specialize in sports. Tuition varies, but is typically around 1300
In recent history, globalization has exercised an increasingly important influence on Danish schools. Many courses are open to foreigners as well as Danes, and many courses include travelling or voluntary stays in other countries as part of the curriculum.
Finland
In 1889,
France
In 1866, during the
In more recent times, following the 1981
Germany, Switzerland and Austria
Folk high schools in Germany, Switzerland and Austria are usually funded on a local level and provide non-credit courses for adults in:
- general education
- vocational education
- political education
- German as a second language (especially for immigrants)
- integration courses (especially for newly arrived refugees)
- various foreign languages
- various forms of art
- information technology
- health education
- preparatory classes for school exams (especially for the Abitur or Matura)
This type of folk high school is currently most widespread in Germany. Because they offer preparatory classes for school exams, in Germany these schools also function as the equivalent of adult high schools in other countries. Germany also has folk high schools that are boarding schools, called Heimvolkshochschulen.
Norway
The first folk high school in
Poland
In 1910, the Przegląd Oświatowy magazine published by the People's Libraries Society featured an article by Idzi Świtała, in which he reported on the success of Danish folk high schools in fostering the prosperity of the Danish countryside.[9] This inspired Polish activist Antoni Ludwiczak to establish a similar school in partitioned Poland, also for Polish patriotic education in view of the Germanisation policy of the German authorities.[9] The establishment of the school was delayed by World War I.[9] The first Polish folk high school was eventually established in 1921 in Dalki after the restoration of independent Poland.[9] The second folk high school was founded in 1924 in Szyce near Kraków,[10] and many more were founded in the interbellum and after World War II. As of May 1948, there were 63 folk high schools in Poland.[8]
Spain
A Universidad popular means any competent educational institution such as those established by municipalities, interest groups, charitable associations and social organizations to promote the popular education of theoretical and practical knowledge directly to the whole population, especially to industrial workers (proletariat), rural farm workers (campisinos), emigrants, and citizens with special needs who do not have convenient access to regular, formal educational facilities,
Sweden
The first folk high schools in Sweden were established in 1868. The first school was open only to men, but already in 1870, the first folk high school for females was founded by Fredrique Paijkull.[11] Swedish folk high schools receive public funding from the Swedish government to support four goals: strengthening democracy, personal development, creating educational equality, and promoting interest and participation in culture.[12]
As of 2023, there are 156 folk high schools throughout the country, most of which are situated in the
Some schools, for example
Nigeria
In 1998, the Grundtvig Movement of Nigeria led by Dr. Kachi Ozumba Snr. established Grundtvig International Secondary School, an independent co-educational secondary school built upon Grundtvig's principles for education.[14]
United States
Americans John C. Campbell and Olive Dame Campbell helped create a folk high school in rural Appalachia based on observations of European folk high schools.[15] The John C. Campbell Folk School opened in 1925 in Brasstown, North Carolina, and it is still offering classes today. Students can learn American traditional arts and crafts, including blacksmithing, ceramics, cooking, jewelry, dance and music.[16]
A contemporary wave of folk school founding in the United States began in the late 1990s and earlier 2000s. At the beginning of the 1990s, there were only twelve active folk schools. Historically in the United States, only one to two such organizations were founded each decade; however, during the 1990s, this pattern began to change. Nine folk schools were founded in the late 1990s and by 2010 an additional twenty-two. [19] As of 2019, the Folk Education Association of America reported over ninety-four active folk schools in twenty-five states. These new folk schools, largely modeled after the John C Campbell Folk School, work to strengthen their communities through the practice and sharing of place-based cultural traditions and craft. [20]
See also
- Education in Denmark
- N. F. S. Grundtvig
- Community college
- Secondary modern
- Internationaler Bund
- Village Institutes
References
- ^ "A brief history of the folk high school".
- ^ "The Danish Folk High School". Archived from the original on 2008-06-21. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
- ^ "A brief history of the folk high school". danishfolkhighschools.com. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ "Daily life at the folk high schools". hojskolerne.dk. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ kansallisbiografia Suomen kansallisbiografia (National Biography of Finland)
- ^ a b "Kansalaisopistot pähkinänkuoressa".
- ^ "Official website of the LAP". Archived from the original on 2007-03-14. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ ISSN 0080-3480.
- ^ ISSN 1233-2224.
- ^ Maliszewski, p. 147
- ^ Paykull, släkt, urn:sbl:8076, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (art av HG-m), hämtad 2014-01-17.
- ^ "Förordning (2015:218) om statsbidrag till folkbildningen". Sveriges Riksdag (The Swedish Parliament) (in Swedish). 2015. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
- ^ "Om folkhögskola". folkhögskola.nu (in Swedish). Sveriges folkhögskolor. Retrieved 9 February 2023.
Det finns 156 folkhögskolor över hela landet.
- ^ "Grundtvig International Secondary School -". grundtvigsecondary.com. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ "John C. Campbell Folk School". folkschool.org. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
- ^ "JCCFS, Our Programs". John C Campbell Folk School. 6 February 2023. Retrieved 6 February 2023.
- ^ "History – Highlander Research and Education Center".
- ^ Horton, Myles, and Other (1990). The Long Haul: An Autobiography. New York, NY: Doubleday.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Murphy, Dawn Jackman (2019). "Democracy, Leadership, and Education: Finding Grundtvig in the Modern US Folk School Movement". Grundtvig-Studier. 69 (2018): 99–103 – via Grundtvig-selskabet.
- ^ "Folk School Directory". Folk Education Association of America. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
External links
- 'Research on Folk High schools', Mimer - research on popular education in Sweden and Scandinavia Archived 2016-12-01 at the Wayback Machine
- folk high school, Columbia Encyclopedia article
- Information about Folk High Schools in Austria
- Information about Folk High Schools in Denmark
- Højskolen Østersøen - international official site
- Ry Højskole's History - Official Site, Danish
- Information about Folk High Schools in Germany
- Information about Folk High Schools in Finland
- Information about Folk High Schools in France, called Université populaire du Rhin
- Information about Folk High Schools in Nordic countries
- Information about Folk High Schools in Norway
- Information about Folk High Schools in South Tyrol
- Information about Folk High Schools in Sweden
- Information about Folk High Schools in Switzerland
- And the Sun Rises with the Farmer:The Philosophical History of the Nordic Folkhighschool