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Below: Rebecca Hillman,
Exeter University, supporting
GFTU’s arts’ work
Photo courtesy of Kevin Hayes
New Education Programme
| Page 11
One joy of education is stumbling across stuff you never
knew. Those who think they’re familiar with milestones
of working class history can expect some surprises in
the GFTU’s Our History programme. People may have
heard of the 1381 peasant revolts, but fewer, almost
certainly, of those in 1549 led by Norfolk yeoman farmer
Robert Kett against land enclosure. With this uprising
came some of the first demands for a more equal
society. Students can now find out all about it.
New content, new methods.
Drab content and uninspired educational methods are,
says Nicholls, a peculiarly British curse, whereas Labour
movements overseas ‘have embraced radical learning
theories and methods’. “The way learning is delivered
is as important as what’s delivered, sometimes more
so.” Informative, informal day schools and stimulating
discussion is the way forward, the GFTU believes.
So, when it comes to understanding Britain’s complex
political machine, rather than listen to a lecturer
wielding class notes, workers will travel to Westminster
to meet union colleagues in the Lords and Commons.
The course will be led by former MP trade unionists who
know all about the arcane world of Early Day Motions
and Private Members’ Bills.
Parliament is full of people who appear born to rule - a
disproportionate number schooled in self-projection at
public school and Oxbridge. Yet public speaking rarely
comes easily to the majority. A new course on offer is
designed to help redress the balance for trade unionists
lacking the self-confidence and know-how to hold an
audience.
Motivational learning.
GFTU’s programme draws heavily on what Nicholls
describes as ‘a rich tradition of informal learning
theories in Britain’. “We learn from each other –
there’s no substitute for face to face learning. Youth
and community education techniques have been
motivational for generations.”
The ‘radical’ adult tradition has drawn on progressive
teaching methods from around the world, he adds.
GFTU has been working with, among others, colleagues
in Latin America to reform teaching styles. It’s also
forged new partnerships in higher education - with
Leeds Beckett University and Newman University,
Birmingham - to offer new ways of training the trainers
in particular.
Most of GFTU’s courses, webinars, festivals and seminars
are free to members of affiliated unions. A forum
recently opened on its website for people to swap
notes, share best practice and ‘sharpen minds’ (see
www.gftu.org.uk.) “A generation of trade unionists have
had the political content stripped from their learning,”
says Nicholls. “It’s all very interesting knowing the detail
of redundancy and health and safety legislation, but
irrelevant if the workplace is closing down as if because
of forces of nature or fate.
“While most people feel austerity is wrong, very few
can articulate why it’s come about and the political and
economic alternative. People have been decapitated
from the knowledge of our movement’s history for too
long. We have to reconstruct a living appreciation of our
past to accelerate a better future.”
AndrewMourant is a
freelance journalist who
has contributed extensively
to the Times Educational
Supplement and Education
Guardian.