Register Now for the AFS Fellows Webinar: Ideas, Trends, and Current Complexities in Folklore in Education

The AFS Fellows in collaboration with Local Learning will present a webinar on Friday, February 6, 2026 from 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET examining current ideas, trends, and methods in folklore and education. Spanning K-12 classrooms, museums, libraries, and other education settings, the methodologies of folklore in education bring critical thinking and key folklore skills to bear on complex challenges in contemporary culture and society.

Webinar participants will interact in one of three breakout sessions to consider the transmission of culture through informal and formal learning, while naming disruptive pedagogies that challenge normative approaches to arts-making practices and standardized, corporatized curricula. Student agency, educational sovereignty, and promoting well-being through strengthening student cultural identity and intercultural understanding are among the topics. Breakout room topics include:

• Our futures: Education, equity, and contributing to just world building
• Building a case: Trends and needs in folklife education research
• Teaching the whole student: Curriculum that meets the moment

The AFS Fellows invite you to engage and think with them during this critical time of education wars that affect all educational settings and all educators.

Recorded materials from this event will be made available on the AFS Fellows webinar recording page along with previous content.

Email Paddy Bowman at pbbowman@gmail.com for questions about the webinar. Email cpatterson@afsnet.org to let us know how we can provide accommodations to support your full participation.