Education for Social Change: The many histories of Woodcraft Folk 12 Themes Archives How far can the aims and principles of Woodcraft Folk, and its activities (camping, group night activities, badge work, etc) be understood in terms of progressive education? To what TBC extent do these mirror or oppose practices of other youth organisations? To what extent can Woodcraft Folk be positioned at the vanguard of progressive educational practice in Britain? Has Woodcraft Folk influenced progressive educational develop- ments, and/or does it adopt and adapt ideas and practices from elsewhere? To what extent has Woodcraft Folk had a clear relationship with the Labour Movement? To what extent has Woodcraft Folk provided a political education similar to that of other socialist and democratic youth movements (e.g., Internation- al Falcon Movement / Socialist Education International)? In what ways has co-operative learning been central to Woodcraft Folk? How can this be understood as part of its relationship with the Co-operative Movement? How has that relationship shifted over time? How far have the educational practices and objectives of Woodcraft Folk been able to reflect and adapt to changing priorities and struggles in society, such as pacifism, feminism, environmental politics, anti-racism, civil rights, LGBTQ+ and disabled rights? Can we characterise Woodcraft Folk as a radical and disruptive organization or a more guarded and traditional one? Woodcraft Folk has a strong and proud tradition of internationalism. What has this meant for the educational work and other activities of the organisation? What are its relationships with international youth groups, past and present? How has internationalism impacted on members and their sense of a global outlook? 2 11 The Woodcraft Folk and World Programme Citizenship Professor Douglas Bourn, UCL Institute of Education 10.30 Registration and coffee - Drama Studio, IOE, 20 Bedford Way 11.00 Welcome and Introductions by Lloyd Russell-Moyle,MP Throughout its history the Woodcraft Folk has had a strong internationalist 11.15 Outline of the Day – and Chair of first sessions: Professor tradition and this has been reflected in a range educational initiatives from the Douglas Bourn, UCL 1930s onwards that promote a sense of being a ‘world citizen’. 11.25 Progressive Cultures in Inter-War Britain—Situating Leslie The Folk’s engagement with this theme mirrors broader educational initiatives in Paul – Dr. Annebella Pollen the 1930s in response to the threat of fascism and the promotion of ‘education for world citizenship’, the emergence in the 1960s and 1970s of social 11.45 Woodcraft, the International Union of Socialist Youth and New movements around internationalism and in the last decade or so around Scouting in Germany after the First World War - Dr Susanne ‘education for global citizenship.’ Rappe-Weber This paper will review specific Woodcraft Folk educational materials from the late 12.05 Group Discussions on themes emerging from the morning 1960s, the 1970s and over the last decade in terms of different sociological and session philosophical interpretations of world and global citizenship. It will conclude by posing some questions around the extent to which the term ‘global citizenship’ 12.40 Introduction to the Archives – Dr Andrew Flinn could be interpreted as a ‘western construction’, as a form of critical 12.45-13.40 Lunch and opportunity to see archives and watch films ‘cosmopolitanism” or as a term to engage young people around the world or to have a sense of global social responsibility. 13.40 Session chaired by Annebella Pollen, University of Brighton: Socialism, Eugenics and the Woodcraft Folk in the inter-war years – Rich Palser Professor Douglas Bourn is Co-Director of Development Education Research Centre, UCL-IOE, author of the Theory and Practice of Development Education 14.00 It Was Natural for Youth to be rebels - The Woodcraft Folk, (2015) and Understanding Global Skills for 21st Century Professions (2018). He the British labour movement and autonomy of youth previously worked for the Woodcraft Folk from 1977 to 1983 as its first Northern movements - Dr Andrew Flinn Officer and from 1983 to 1990 as its National Secretary. [email protected] 14.20 Group Discussions on 2 Presentations 14.55-15.10 Tea Break 15.10 Final Session Chaired by Andrew Flinn, UCL: Blue Skies: The Woodcraft Folk, Sussex and Landscape – Forging New Spaces in Old Woods - Suzanne Joinson 15.30 Woodcraft Folk and World Citizenship- Douglas Bourn 16.00 Discussion on 2 presentations in groups 16.30 Final Reflections and Observations 16.45 End of Symposium 10 3 Abstracts of presentations branch (where my children currently attend as Pioneers and Elfins).The talk looks at the idealisation of Sussex landscapes as part of Woodcraft Folk’s ethos in the past and how Woodcraft Folk's engagement with independent and natural spaces is even more relevant today as we exist in an increasingly less 'natural' and more digital world. The talk examines how what might be seen as rather old fashioned activities - camping, night walks, singing, bushcraft etc - in fact provide radical outdoor spaces offering a literal and metaphorical breather from normal school-enforced Progressive Cultures in Interwar Britain: educational expectations and digital realities. Crucially this activity is both extremely affordable and local. Sussex-related activities usually happen on Situating Leslie Paul the edgelands of usual controlled zones such as school playgrounds or activity centres. Instead, Woodcraft Folk projects happen in the corners of farmland, Dr Annebella Pollen, University of Brighton along riverbanks and in woodlands. They also link to community and calendar- based activities such as Maypole dancing, harvest and Christmas festivals, and As the co-founder of Woodcraft Folk with Sidney Shaw in 1925, and as its first egg-rolling at Easter. ‘Head Man’, Leslie Paul was undoubtedly the most dominant influence on the policies and practices of the early years of the organisation. In part this was due My premise is that contemporary Woodcraft Folk activity is not nostalgic, despite to his insatiable energy and his prodigious abilities as a writer; he was the sole the fascinating and intriguing history, but rather in the past was way ahead of its author of the first generation of educational literature for Woodcraft Folk, from the time. It now finds itself relevant, useful and able to position itself as a local first pamphlet, The Child and the Race (1926), to his most substantial work of provider a radical, alternative forward-thinking educational space for young educational theory, The Republic of Children (1938). Through these works, Paul people. established an intellectual identity as well as a practical method for Woodcraft Folk, based on his socialist politics and his formative experiences in youth organisations from the Boy Scouts to the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift. Suzanne Joinson is a novelist, published by Bloomsbury (A Lady Cyclist's Guide This study seeks to understand the contributions of Paul to Woodcraft Folk in the to Kashgar and The Photographer's Wife), essayist (New York Times, Aeon, context of his wider writings and intellectual networks. During and after his Guardian and many other places), and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Woodcraft Folk years, Paul published extensively, far beyond education and youth University of Chichester where she teach creative non-fiction. She has a strong subjects, producing poetry, novels, journalism and book-length works of social interest in narratives and stories connected to Sussex. and political theory; through these it is possible to chart his personal passions and political attitudes as they unfolded and, through his four autobiographical works produced between 1946 and 1977, in retrospect. Paul described himself and his friends in the interwar years as ‘inveterate joiners’ and this presentation also explores his cultural allegiances outside Woodcraft Folk, in particular his central role in the Federation of Progressive Societies and Individuals, an organisation founded in the early 1930s by H. G. Wells and C. E. M. Joad to create an alliance of Left interests. The broad remit of the organisation, encompassing reformist ideals in politics, economics, psychology, sex and architecture (to name but a few of its concerns), provides a wider framework for understanding Paul’s educational vision, and for understanding what it meant to be ‘progressive’ in interwar Britain. 4 9 disciplined and “be guided by the experience of elder persons” (LNV, August 1939). Dr Annebella Pollen teaches, researches and publishes cultural history across a range of periods and case studies. From 2015-17 she held an AHRC Fellowship This paper will examine the relationship between labour movement organisations examining the visual and material culture of British woodcraft groups. Related (including political parties, trade unions and the cooperative movement bodies) publications include The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift: Intellectual Barbarians (Donlon and children’s and youth organisations between the 1920s and the 1950s, a Books, 2015, with accompanying exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery 2015-16), relationship that was often characterised by language of family, parental contributions to A People’s History of Woodcraft Folk (2016) and essays in Being authority and youthful rebellion. In examining this relationship the paper will look Modern (2018), Queer As Camp (2019) and Uniform: Clothing and