Folk Education Association of America
Mission and Philosophy
01
Assist Communication
To assist communication among people interested or experienced in the uses of folk education;
02
Increase Knowledge
To increase knowledge of folk education through a variety of activities including publications, workshops, and conferences;
03
Identify and Encourage
To identify and encourage the growth of programs which provide folk educational opportunities in this hemisphere.
Anti-racist statement and commitment
“FEAA supports education as a tool in working toward economic equality, workers’
rights, anti- racism and sexism, environmental restoration and protection, as well as
alternatives to environmental racism, militarism, and the weakening power of people’s
voices in the face of unaccountable politicians and corporations.”
The FEAA's commitment to this statement over the years has remained strong. As our capacity has grown, so has our reach and our ability to impact social change; however, we do not believe we have done enough, particularly concerning inclusion and elevation of BIPOC voices within the folk education movement.
We can and will do better! As we move into future phases of our work, we challenge ourselves and those we support to expand the reach of our work, include all those that reside and work within our communities, and make our centers of folk schooling and folk education ones where interethnic/intercultural, anti-racist allegiances may be cultivated and thrive.
Board of Directors
Devon Lee, President
Sylvia S. Bagley, Vice President
Jerry Jackson, Treasurer
Jennifer Rose Escobar, Secretary
Terri Van Orman, Board Member
The Folk Education Association of American or FEAA was founded in 1976 to promote humanistic personal development, understanding of one's own and other's cultural diversity, and commitment to community growth. The FEAA identifies, supports, and facilitates community-based, learner-led education as a strategic tool for community organizing.
Folk, or people’s education includes many traditions of peer education involving critical analysis of oppressive systems to create alternative possibilities for institutions that shape our lives. We believe that this democratic, participatory method of analysis and action entails participants being leaders, collectively using their voices and actions for social change. FEAA supports this type of education as a tool in working toward economic equality, workers’ rights, anti-racism and sexism, environmental restoration and protection, as well as alternatives to environmental racism, militarism, and the weakening power of people’s voices in the face of unaccountable politicians and corporations.
Purpose
The Folk Education Association of America, in recognizing the need for education to promote humanistic personal development, understanding of one's own and others' cultural diversity, and commitment to community growth; and in recognizing the effectiveness of cooperative living-learning experiences in which the process of dialogue is an essential component; and in describing this approach as folk education, exemplified and inspired by the Scandinavian folk high schools and study circles, hereby do set forth these purposes of its existence and activity:
How it
started
The Folk Education Association of America (FEAA) was established in 1976 in Berea, Kentucky as the Folk School Association of America, to advocate and organize around the Scandinavian concept of the folk school as an adult learning center. Founders Kay Parke (NY State University College at Cobleskill) and John Ramsay (Berea College) were students of the 19th century Dane, N.F.S. Grundtvig, whose philosophy lies behind the movement, and aware of the long history of interest and study of these ideas in North America. They took action to organize that interest formally with the creation of the Folk Education Association of America.
FEAA has grown through several phases of development over the years. Most recently, in 2014, a new project was created, within the long-lived national organization, by a group of young people calling their project “The Folk School Alliance,” (FSA). The group was interested in forging links with a wave of new folk schools springing up all over the USA and Canada. Over the next several years, the Folk School Alliance (FSA) emerged as the leading project of FEAA with additional projects forming as a result of increased communication and collaboration within and through the Alliance (i.e., Leading from the Roots: 2018-2022, The Folk Education Network: 2022-2025, Nurturing Community Singing and Songleading through the folk schools 2022-ongoing (a patnership project with the Community Singing Movement), Bridging and Bonding (a partnership project with the African American Craft Alliance), and the North American Folk School Researchers Network: under-development.
This latest “wave” of folk school birthing in North America began in the late 1990s and includes new and contemporary forms of folk schools, which are nevertheless still rooted in the history that FEAA was formed to represent. This resurgence amounts to a “movement,” and the FSA, under the auspices of FEAA, works to honor the extraordinary scope of this 21st century phenomenon. Together we are cultivating connections between schools, maintain a web site, social media presence ( Facebook and Instagram), as of 2018, a facilitated virtual Community of Practice, and we provide support for Community-based Participatory Action Research in connection with folk schools and their community partners.