Melanie Lenehan is the Principal and CEO of Fircroft College, a unique publically supported adult education institution located in the West Midlands in Birmingham, England's second largest city. The college was founded in 1909 by George Cadbury, Jr., a Quaker industrialist and philanthropist, who was one of the pioneers of the art and science of milk chocolate. Cadbury's educational vision was strongly influenced by the Danish folk high school model which emphasizes cultivating the development of a strong sense of personhood and belonging through non-competitive adult education in the context of small residential learning communities with multiple opportunities for formal and informal interactions, ranging from classes, to shared meals and group singing. The students of Fircroft College are most often adults older than traditional college age who have experienced significant setbacks or disruptions in their lives, including addiction, mental health issues, or disadvantages arising from poverty or legal status.
In our conversation, Mel and I spoke about her experiences as a child of Irish immigrants growing up in London who was the first person in her family to attend university, as well as the origins of Fircroft College and its connections to the Danish folk high school movement. Finally, Mel introduced one of her most important sources of inspiration, namely, the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire and the approach for working the poor and dispossessed that he articulated as "the Pedagogy of the Oppressed."
Links:
Fircroft College - https://www.fircroft.ac.uk/
Thoreau College - https://thoreaucollege.org/
