About the project

Since the establishment of the first Danish folk high school 175 years ago, the folk high school movement has been a leading educational and cultural institution in Denmark. Based on the purpose: to provide life enlightenment, people’s enlightenment and democratic education, the folk high schools aim at an education that enables the individual not just to make a living, but to live meaningful lives. Today this also means to live your life in coexistence with nature.

With this project, The Association of Folk High Schools in Denmark (FFD) wishes to strengthen and develop the folk high schools' contribution to the sustainable transition of societies. Climate challenges are transnational and must be solved by global cooperation.

To sum up the goal of the project:

By strengthening our pedagogical praxis, our global connections and the involved people’s engagement we wish to invigorate our role in the sustainable transition of societies.

 

Participants

Time frame and elements

Pedagogical teacher training course online

All project partners (2 from each school) participate in a pedagogical teacher training course online on sustainable education, global education and action learning with contributions from scholars and with practice sharing from the participants themselves. The course will consist of 5 modules of 3 hours each.

Seminar - project partners designing local educational programs

May 4.-6th 2022 project partners meet in Denmark for a joint seminar to continue the conversation about sustainable education and to design the local educational programs. This is a great opportunity for the partner schools to plan individual visits, if possible.

First local educational program with students

First educational course with students. For the Danish schools, this should include 12-15 students in each school, being trained as change agents working for real sustainable changes in the local communities where the Danish folk high schools are located. Along with local partners and with global inspiration from their partner schools abroad, these students will analyse, generate, and implement ideas and engage with the community surrounding the folk high school.
If possible, the Danish school could plan a study trip with the students to their partner school abroad.

Second educational program with students and Climate Camp and Climate Festival

Second educational course with students, adjusted with experiences from the first one.

In May 2023 the project will culminate in an outreach week consisting of:

  • School visit. Two students and one teacher from each partner school abroad visit their Danish partners and participate in local civic enlightenment events. Estimated time: 2 days.
  • Climate-Camp for all participating schools. 150 Danish change agents, plus 33 non-Danish delegates meet to share their local experiences and to create a common vision for a just and sustainable world. Estimated time: 3 days.
  • Climate Festival for a wider public and media campaign. To communicate their visions and experiences to a wider public, all these efforts will culminate in a major climate festival where the young change agents will present their projects and share their common visions. The climate festival will open with a special programme for decisionmakers and stakeholders, including educational institutions and other organisations working with sustainable transition and personal formation in Denmark and globally. For this event, we will aim at strong national media coverage. Estimated time: 1 day.

Evaluation, lessons learned and sharing experiences

Examine what project partners, students and other target groups has gained from the project, and derive lessons learned for future collaborations. These insights will be shared within different relevant forums such as the global, Scandinavian and Danish folk high school movement.

Funding

This project is mainly funded by the Danish NGO Civil Society in Development. The vision of Civil Society in Development is: Strong popular and communities working together to secure people’s rights, promote global justice and sustainability, and combat the causes of poverty.

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