| dc.description.abstract | With an emphasis on community, culture, and craft, folk schools offer poignant insights for those interested in transforming society through education. Folk schools are open enrollment, autonomous, non-competitive (ungraded), non-vocational, nonformal (non-degree granting), (often) rural, cooperative living and learning spaces for adult education conceptualized in the 1830’s by Nikolai Severin Grundtvig enacted first in Denmark and, later, Scandinavia (Canfield, 1965; Coe, 2000; K. Totten, personal communication, July 26, 2024; Kavalier, 1962; Kulich, 2002; Pantzar, 1988). They have existed in North America since the turn of the twentieth century, but efforts toward a durable folk schooling movement in Canada (Parsey & Friesen, 1953; Kulich, 1988) have yet to materialize.
A number of folk schools have emerged in Canada over the last decade, and this research seeks to answer the question, “In these still early days, what is the state of folk schooling in Canada?” The study employs a case study approach to research in education (Stake, 1995). Founders of five Canadian folk schools—Annapolis Valley Folk School in Paradise, Nova Scotia; Fireloch Gathering Place and Retreat in North Lochaber, Nova Scotia; Honeybee Folk School in Fredericton, New Brunswick; Life.School.House in Antigonish, Nova Scotia and beyond; and Okanagan Folk School in Peachland, British Columbia—participated in semi-structured interviews for this study—sharing moments of toil, struggle, joy, and success.
This research highlights the collective strengths of folk schools in Canada today in community building, reviving traditional skills and endangered knowledge, creating affluence, and increasing tourism. Likewise, it discusses shared challenges and supports needed around funding, staffing, navigating the unknown, awareness, and space considerations. I argue that folk education—as a tool for community and place-based popular adult education—can help respond to the complex issues faced in Canada today, much as the schools supported the Danish on a path to non-violent modernization (Borish, 1991). Adding to the scant literature on Canadian folk schooling, this study represents a step forward in advancing unique approaches to folk schooling in a Canadian context. | en_US |
