Bourn, D and Palser, R (Eds).
(2025)
Span the world with friendship: progressive education, internationalism and the Woodcraft Folk.
[Book].
UCL Press: London.
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Abstract
Within the histories of progressive educational movements and youth work, one organisation that rarely gets a mention is the Woodcraft Folk. Founded in 1925, it has been consistently at the forefront of promoting radical social change through education. It played a role in breaking down the barriers between East and West during the Cold War, in promoting a co-educational and cooperative based approach to learning, and in encouraging environmental activism at a time when it was unfashionable. The Woodcraft Folk’s evolving approach to education for social change is explored in Span the World with Friendship from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including political and social theory, cultural history, anthropology, educational theory and youth work theory. Through investigation of published and primary sources, including letters, meeting records and oral testimonies, contributors bring scholarship to a narrative that has often been uncritical. Beginning with a biography of founder Leslie Paul, chapters study the Folk’s relationship to debates in the labour movement, the extent to which the eugenics movement influenced its ideas and practices, and how the folk songs and dances used within the organisation reflected wider social and cultural trends. Internationalism is a key theme running through this book which concludes with a focus on how the Woodcraft Folk’s progressive nature is moving it increasingly towards being a youth-led movement.
| Type: | Book |
|---|---|
| Title: | Span the world with friendship: progressive education, internationalism and the Woodcraft Folk |
| ISBN-13: | 9781800088498 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.14324/111.9781800088498 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800088498 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Collection © Editors, 2025 Text © Contributors, 2025 Any third- party material in this book is not covered by the book’s Creative Commons licence. Details of the copyright ownership and permitted use of third- party material is given in the image (or extract) credit lines. If you would like to reuse any third-party material not covered by the book’s Creative Commons licence, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright owner. This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY- NC 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. This licence allows you to share and adapt the work for non- commercial use providing attribution is made to the author and publisher (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work) and any changes are indicated. Attribution should include the following information: Bourn, D. and Palser, R. (eds) 2025. Span the World with Friendship: Progressive education, internationalism and the Woodcraft Folk. London, UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800088498 Further details about Creative Commons licences are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ |
| Keywords: | Internationalism, folk songs and dances, anti-racism, youth movements, progressive education, Eugenics |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10208294 |
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