Demarcating Popular Education with Government Subsidies: Sweden 1911–1991

Abstract

By analysing the regulating mechanisms of state subsidies to Swedish institutions generally considered mediating “popular education” during the twentieth century, it is argued that a tension has been developed between two parallel notions of popular education. A narrower ideal popular education—emphasising non-formality and independence—has been discursively nurtured along with a broader organisational popular education, denoting the de facto institutions that have received government funding, primarily the folk high schools and study associations. It is argued that the organisational popular education is a reality in itself, spanning over border zones between, for example, non-formal and formal education. Furthermore, an argument against using “popular education” as an analytical concept is put forth, since it is overly contested. Rather, it is promoted as a discursive construct that has formed real organisational structures with their own logic, which cannot be denoted by words such as non-formal adult education.

Att mötas på folkhögskola : en studie om folkhögskollärares pedagogiska hållning

“…Även aktiviteter, "där människor organiserar sig i grupper och rörelser för att söka kunskap och förändra sina livsvillkor" oavsett om de själva beskriver verksamheten som bildning har beskrivits som "bildning som företeelser" (Gustavsson, 1988, s. 60). Folkbildning som ett kollektivt projekt, där folket bildar sig självt utan hierarki mellan lärare och kursdeltagare har samtidigt beskrivits som ett exempel på en idealbild som har förmedlats i folkhögskolan som institution (Edquist, 2015). Folkbildningen har också beskrivits som en bildningstradition med starka inhemska rötter som växte fram i arbetar-frikyrko-, nykterhets-, rösträtts-, och kvinnorörelserna som alla i någon mening förde en kamp för frihet (Gustavsson, 1991).…”

“…En utbildningsform i spänningsfältet frihet -styrning Samtidigt som folkhögskolornas verksamhet har varit relativt fri från statlig styrning har den blivit möjlig tack vare statligt stöd. Här finns en spänning mellan frihet och statligt beroende som diskuterats (Edquist, 2015). De första folkhögskolorna som grundades i mitten av 1800-talet gjorde motstånd mot det etablerade samhällets kunskapssyn och pedagogiska hållningar.…”

The Ironies of Digital Citizenship

“…While liberal adult education rests on the notion of being 'free and voluntary' (Government Bill, 1990/91:82), it has, in practice, been unquestionably reliant on state support. Consequently, the Swedish government has, from time to time, been able to compel liberal adult education associations to perform particular political-educational undertakings to 'shape' future citizens (Berg & Edquist, 2017;Edquist, 2015).…”

Is There a Place for Popular Adult Education in the Managerial University?

“…In this respect, one could assume that popular adult education has a strong foothold in Finnish academia, but as it turns out, it has not. All these forms of organisational popular adult education that receive funding from the state (see Edquist, 2015) serve different pedagogical and ideological purposes in Finnish popular adult education depending on the representative organization (political, religious, or some other). Despite the ideological differences, the overall picture of Finnish popular adult education is humanistic-liberal, reflecting the official politics of the Finnish welfare state.…”

“…But what did we mean by popular education? We acknowledged from the outset that there are many traditions and interpretations of the field (Flowers, 2009;Ferrer, 2011); scholars have used the concept 'in divergent senses' (Ferrer, 2011, p. 25), arguing that it is a messy concept (Manninen, 2017) which has led some commentators to conclude it should not be used as an analytical concept (Edquist, 2015) 8 .…”