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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.