Local Learning Publishes Volume 11 of JFE: On Shifting Ground

Guest Editors by Michelle Banks and Sojin Kim join co-editors Lisa Rathje and Paddy Bowman in announcing the launch of Volume 11 of the Journal of Folklore and Education, On Shifting Ground: Migration, Disruption, and the Changing Contours of Home.

Migration is not a straightforward, singular, linear process of leaving one place and arriving in another. Being on the move involves infinite motivations and circumstances. It always involves interaction, adaptation, creativity; it is multifaceted, multi-routed, sometimes circular or cyclical. And what we find resoundingly essential to recognize—whether we work in the classroom, at museums, or directly in community—is that all of us live and produce our senses of community, and by extension home, on shifting ground.

On Shifting Ground demonstrates how folklore and other traditional expressive forms offer tools, strategies, and resources for both responding to and catalyzing change. Whether adapting traditional expressive behavior to meet new circumstances during and after migration or asserting them to challenge the status quo, people productively leverage the durability and dynamic nature of culture to strengthen community life through changes of many sorts—whether political, social, environmental, or cultural.

The Journal of Folklore and Education (ISSN 2573-2072) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal published annually by Local Learning: The National Network for Folk Arts in Education. JFE publishes work that uses ethnographic approaches to tap the knowledge and life skills of students, their families, community members, and educators in K-12, college, museum, and community education.

Read the 2025 Call for Submissions for Volume 12: Cultural Frameworks for Transformative Documenting and Learning.