Toward a Just Leadership Learning Ecology: A CHAT-IT Analysis of the Highlander Idea

Purpose: This paper conceptualizes a just leadership learning ecology through an analysis of one nontraditional site of leadership preparation: the Highlander Research and Education Center (originally founded as the Highlander Folk School). Methodology: Drawing on cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and institutional theory (IT), we examine the core design and pedagogy of Highlander, which co-founder, Myles Horton, referred to as the “Highlander idea.” Findings: We illustrate how a residential learning and living environment, norms of epistemic humility and democratic decision making, and horizontal teaching and learning roles fostered social justice leadership. This just leadership learning ecology reflected institutions present at the time of Highlander's founding, including cultural scripts rooted in prophetic Christianity, class consciousness, and unfolding social movements in Appalachia and the South. Implications: Our analysis of Highlander extends recent efforts to re-envision the how and who of leadership preparation and addresses the observed lack of coherence within this subfield.

Paulo Freire, Myles Horton e Nicolaj F. S. Grundtvig: educadores dos oprimidos

Trata-se de um ensaio comparativo entre três educadores cristãos que viveram em períodos e locais diferentes, mas com o mesmo compromisso de emancipação de setores populares. Suas ideias e práticas provocaram reações dos setores dominantes que tentaram impedi-los de educar, mas elas se espalharam e acabaram por impulsionar novas práticas e reflexões no campo da educação popular de jovens e adultos.

LA EDUCACIÓN POPULAR EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS: LAS HUELLAS DE PAULO FREIRE Y MYLES HORTON

El presente trabajo esta situado en el campo de la historia y la educación. Buscareconstruir uno de los procesos menos transitados por la tradición de la educación popularlatinoamericana, y norteamericana. En este caso rescatar vínculos, similitudes, encuentros ydiferencias de dos concepciones y referentes de la educación popular: Paulo Freire y MylesHorton. Freire durante su largo exilio de los años 60 y 70 fue invitado en reiteradas oportunidades a los Estados Unidos. Allí llevo a cabo intercambios en los que expuso y debatió con pares norteamericanos acerca de las posibilidades de interpretar y “aplicar” las ideas de “Pedagogía del oprimido “en territorios del primer mundo”. Harvard, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Los Ángeles fueron las principales estadías de Freire. En algunos casos con breves recorridos y en otros, con la meta de retornar para completar trabajos comunes. Así sucedió con el histórico educador popular norteamericano Myles Horton, creador de uno de los movimientos más relevantes en la historia de la educación popular de los EEUU, el Centro Highlander de Teennesse. Era corriente que a tanto a Horton como a Freire en sus presentaciones los participantes, indistinatmente, le preguntaran: “¿es posible pensar la educación popular en los Estados Unidos?” ¿Los países del Primer mundo pueden implementar estrategias de “tradición popular” en sus organizaciones y en sus aulas? Precisamente estas inquietudes, y sobre todo, la reconstrucción histórica de estos encuentrosserán el eje central de este trabajo.

Framing Care for Planners of Education Programs

Using a framework of care to design experiences in formal or informal learning does two things. It acknowledges intentions of reflective learning through open communication and meets expectations of scholars seeking knowledge within a learning community. This proposed framework was developed from programs involving popular education, community development, open communication, critical reflection, and democratic participation. It can be applied to most instructional contexts, where relationships between facilitators and participants are valued as part of an active learning environment. This framework of care builds on the work of Myles Horton, Paulo Freire, Nel Noddings, and Fergal Finnegan. When planning programs, we recommend both understanding participants’ learning goals and then being attentive to care, community, communication, critical reflection, equality, and democracy. Through these approaches, educators can create a caring experience for learners.

Andragogy in the Appalachians

In the field of adult education, one of the better known concepts is that of the Six Assumptions of Malcolm Knowles. These assumptions, according to Knowles, divide the world of pedagogy, defined as the art and science of teaching children, from that of andragogy, conceived as the art and science of helping adults learn. In the realm of education for older learners, myriad schools and programs dot the educational landscape, but one particularly unorthodox institution of adult education, the Highlander Folk School, led by activist educator Myles Horton, stands out for its teaching roles in the Union Labor Movement of the 1930s and 1940s, and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. This paper looks at Myles Horton of the Highlander Folk School, his background, education and preparation for establishing his lifelong dream of using alternative education among the “common uncommon people” for learning how to solve social and economic justice problems, and this paper then focuses on the extent to which the philosophy and teaching actions of Horton correspond to the Six Assumption Framework of andragogy as delineated by Malcolm Knowles.