The folk high school takes many different forms throughout the world, but what needs to be in place, in order for an educational setting to be a folk high school? Or in other words, what is the core of the folk high school pedagogy?
In international folk high school programs Grundtvig’s educational ideas is merged with educational thinkers such as Brazilian Paulo Freire, Bengali Rabindranath Tagore and Indian Mahatma Gandhi.
But also German Dietrich Benner and the theory of praxis communities by Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave have been connotated with the folk high school.
Popular enlightenment, life enlightenment, living interaction, freedom and emancipation, conscientization and humanization - focus of this joint session is to shed light on some of the core concepts of the pedagogical idea and praxis of the folk high school.
What makes this an alternative pedagogical philosophy – what stand out and where are the similarities and differences? Can we, collectively, come closer to a joint contemporary popular enlightenment philosophy?
To help us we have invited some of the leading experts on this field, they will introduce us to the key concepts of these inspirational thinkers and we will reflect upon how these theories are put into praxis in today’s folk high school.