Folk high schools / Folk schools

Research plan for project granted by the Swedish Research Council (the Swedish research links-programme) in November 2013. Project title: Interactions between traditions of lifelong learning in Scandinavia and Eastern Africa. Project leaders:
Associate Professor Henrik Nordvall (Linköping University, Sweden), henrik.nordvall@liu.se
Professor Maurice Amutabi (Catholic University of Eastern Africa/Kisii University, Kenya), amutabi@yahoo.com

The chapter presents an outline of the history of Folk High Schools in Sweden. The analysis includes mainly social and political determinants of their functioning in Poland’s northern neighbor. The main trends of the evolution of social functions of these institutions has also been presented encompassing 145 years of their functioning: from the educational center for peasantry (before 1918) – through the educational institution catering for the needs of social movements (1918-1968) to the concept of skola för alla (Eng.: School for All). Because of the gaps in international writing in this scope, an emphasis has been put on ideas concerning the origins of Folk High Schools in Sweden as well as on a quantitative analysis of their activities during the last decades. The entire analysis has been presented against the background of Polish interests concerning the Swedish folkhögskolor (and folkbildning) from the half of the 19th century until the present day.

Popular education (Folkbildning), a distinctive Swedish tradition of lifelong learning, has always concerned itself with the relationship between learning, power and democracy in society rather than having a purely individualistic and instrumental approach to learning for employability, which has dominated policy and practice. Through the themes of power and democracy this book examines popular education's contribution to enhancing people's lives in communities, reflecting on wider significance, and explores its impact on the political culture of the state and the cultural politics of society within and outside Sweden, including the USA, Japan, Canada and Tanzania.

The sketch recalls the role that the Kashubian Folk High School - known Polish non-formal adult education institution has played in civic education, promoting the concept of sustainable development and saving the rural/folk culture in the northern part of Poland during the last three decades.

During the phase of emerging adulthood between the late secondary and early college years, students are in their greatest need of a teaching and learning philosophy that matches their development. Pedagogy is a philosophy of teaching children and andragogy addresses the teaching and learning that happens in adulthood. It is now time to discuss ephebagogy; the teaching and learning that happens for young people in late secondary and early tertiary settings. In this developmental phase students need environments that offer relevance, revelation, responsibility, and relationships. During emerging adulthood and budding citizenship the learners need experiences that are relevant to who they are and who they will become. They need the world revealed to them in ways that brings the outside into the classroom and takes them outside of the classroom. Responsibility for their own learning and the responsibility to choose how learning will happen and how it will be assessed are important to a group coming into their own citizenship. Last, relationships between students, teachers and the world of which they are a part are the social element to make learning stick.

Cite:

Flowers, S. (2014). A philosophy for teaching and learning in emerging adulthood. New Horizons for Learning Journal, 11(1). Retrieved from http://jhepp.library.jhu.edu/ojs/index.php/newhorizons/article/view/343

The Danish Folkehøjskole started as a measure toward adult education, social justice, national identity, and liberation of peasantry in the mid 1800s. Its modern iteration is a Nordic-wide system of transition schools for 18- to 24-year-old learners as they decide whether to enter university or the workforce. Ubiquitously accessed, the folk high school structure translates in five ways to offerings found in the United States, namely the commercial gap year industry and the non-profit public service corps. The translation does not happen without some elements lost, however an examination of the intersections and the potentials begins an important discussion. 

Cite:

Flowers, S. (2015, April 10). Scandinavian folkehøjskole & American gap year: Cultivating the emerging adult. Paper presented at Harvard University Graduate School of Education 20th Annual Student Research Conference, Cambridge, MA.

Fokus för detta kapitel är de rörelser individer gör över nationsgränser i studiesyfte. Ambitionen är att kartlägga vilka geografiska mönster som präglar deltagandet i folkhögskolornas resandekurser. Dessa mönster jämförs med den studentmobilitet som sker inom ramen för den högre utbildningen.

Medan en begränsad skara europeiska och engelskspråkiga länder visar sig ha dominera studentmobiliteten, är folkhögskoleresornas destinationer mer utspridda över jordens yta. Utgångspunkten för kapitlets avslutande del är att det i anknytning till "det internationella" finns olika symboliska värden att åberopa och tillerkännas. Utbildningsarrangemangen analyseras avslutningsvis med hjälp av begreppet kosmopolitiskt kapital.

The book shows the history of Swedish folk high schools. The main trends of the evolution of social functions of these institutions has also been presented in the book encompassing 140 years of their functioning: from the educational center for peasantry (before 1918) – through the educational institution catering for the needs of social movements (1918-1968) - to the concept of the School for All. Because of the gaps in international writing in this scope, an emphasis has been put on ideas concerning the origins of folk high schools in Sweden as well as on a quantitative analysis of their activities during the last decades.

Många ungdomar drömmer om en framtid som yrkesmusiker. Folkhögskolan utgör en betydande lärandearena där en del av dem får hänge sig åt sina drömmar. Ändå vet vi förvånansvärt lite om hur musikens rum inom folkbildningen är konstituerade socialt, didaktiskt och genremässigt. Detta antologibidrag är ett försök att fylla några av dessa kunskapsluckor. I kapitlet kommer jag att analysera folkhögskolornas musiklinjer med avseende på genreutbredning och söktryck, liksom resonera om deras plats i det större utbildningslandskapet i musik, och dess relationen till musikfältet.

The sketch is to familiarize Polish pedagogues with the assumptions, the development and the effects of the Resursbevarande försörjning course – one of the best known Scandinavian andragogical experiments, launched at the end of the 1970s and continued till today. It is placed in the area of Swedish folbildning (non-formal adult education) and based on philosophical tradition of Nikolai F.S. Grundtvig and the concepts of educational work of Christen Mikkelsen Kold. Kåre Olsson developed the assumptions of the course and had been the coordinator of the whole project for almost three decades, since its very beginning. The entire undertaking was organized in Skattungbyn (a small Swedish village in Dalarna region), based on the structures of Folk High School in Mora. The experiment consists in building economically self-sufficient social community based on traditional farming and on the ideas of cooperatives the values of traditional culture of de-favourized groups of people. And the important elements of the (self) creating each year anew educational micro-system of that institution each time include traditional music, “living word”, “off-head theatre”, which is why they will be analyzed in more detail.

Title in English: Through multicultural education towards Pomeranian Regional Community – remarks based on the new directions of activities of Kashubian Folk High School
Summary: On the example of activities taken up recently by the educational institution mentioned in the title of the article, the author tries to answer the questions: how can such institutions use previously developed concepts and previously gained experience in their new activities? and – do Folk High Schools stand a chance of becoming effective tools of multicultural education? The article shows the way the Kashubian Folk High School, one of the most important Pomeranian adult education institution operating in rural areas, has taken in educational tasks that are multicultural in character. The necessity to develop them arose from the real needs of the ethnically and
culturally diversified Pomeranian region, and from the willingness of the Folk High School in Wieżyca to participate in creating a real, fully civic Pomeranian regional community through multicultural education.
The article mentions the main stages of preparations for incorporating multicultural education into the programme of the Folk High School in Wieżyca, the theoretical premises for extending the existing areas of activity by a new aspect, as well as the first multicultural education undertakings implemented by that institution.

A transition from cognitive to comprehensive human learning concepts is taking place in contemporary andragogical theories today. Adults are increasingly being viewed holistically as individuals grasping experience by learning through their physical, emotional and cognitive activities. This experience calls for paying greater attention to questions concerning human life in their entirety.
The question of personal development is not new; active inquiries into this question were started already in the 1960s, when a new direction – the humanistic approach – appeared and took roots in the science of psychology. Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, the developers of this approach, put forward the need of self-realization in humans and the functioning of humans in its entirety as the principal idea behind this approach. This approach showed a new student-centred model through its integration in pedagogy, with freedom, autonomy, and responsibility appearing in it as its main values. 
Both Jarvis (2006) and Illeris (2006) started paying attention to the comprehensive model of human learning stressing that it resulted not only in the acquisition of knowledge, but also in the improvement of humans in general. This approach provided a possibility to view the improvement of adult personality as a transformation of experience with the aim of deriving personal meaning. Illeris (2006) attempted to isolate the improvement of personality as a separate concept of holistic learning. Within this approach, he identifies the development of various personal traits and qualities, such as those related to intellect, self-control, emotions and others – topical issues of modern society. 
Today, there are specific institutions which have the personal development of adults as one of the principal aims of their activity.  These institutions are known throughout the world as folk high schools first established by the famous Danish theologian, writer, politician, and philosopher N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783-1872). Thanks to this concept oriented towards ordinary people and developed by Grundtvig, which has been in use for 160 years now, adult persons aged 18 and more are provided with an opportunity to take part in a 3-4 month training course aimed at getting to know oneself better, developing one’s potential and talents, living together and learning the basics of democracy.

Vad menas med folkbildning? Den korta men mångbottnade frågan utgör stommen i denna bok. Folkbildningsverksamheter, i form av studiecirklar och folkhögskolekurser, samlar årligen stora delar av Sveriges befolkning. Eftersom folkbildningen anses ha stor betydelse för demokratin i landet ges den ett betydande statsbidrag. Men folkbildning förstås ofta också som något mer än en beteckning på det avgränsade område som staten beviljar anslag. Begreppet kan laddas med en rad  olika innebörder. Det kan dyka upp när någon försöker beskriva ett kunskapsförmedlande TV-program eller en forskare som lyckas göra sig hörd bland allmänheten. Det förekommer när biblioteken och andra kulturinstitutioners samhällsroll kommer på tal.

I boken presenteras fyra forskares synsätt på folkbildning med syftet att bidra till en diskussion om begreppets innebörder. En rad olika frågor behandlas: Vilka innebörder kan vi spåra hos begreppet så som det används i politik och folkbildningsverksamhet? Hur kan man tänka kring folkbildning som studieobjekt i forskning? Hur kan forskare inom dagens akademiska system, med dess fokus på artikelproduktion för smala prestigefyllda internationella tidskrifter, förhålla sig till folkbildning som ideal? Hur kan vi förstå skönlitteraturens betydelse för folkbildningen?

Boken vänder sig till forskare, folkbildare, studenter och andra som har ett intresse för folkbildning.

"ABSTRACT
Nowadays in the field of andragogy, there is a significant transition from learning as a merely cognitive phenomenon to a more comprehensive approach, defining learning as a process of whole person development. Thus this study has its focus on sharing the experience of good practice for promoting adults' personal development at six folk high schools in Latvia and Denmark. Observations have taken place since June 2011 till December 2012. All in all fifty six days of formal and informal activities were transcribed as field notes within different subjects as Danish, Latvian, Pottery, Philosophy, Self-development, Music, Yoga, Diet class etc. Data analysis were provided by AQUAD 6.0 (Huber, 2003) using mix-methods approach, combining conceptual codes and open coding. Main results show, that the most appropriate pedagogical circumstances of learning for personal development are those, where adults can develop themselves through body, mind and emotional activity and where 1) person has been treated as a value him/herself, 2) person's values are the main focus and 3) high-/democratic values fulfil study process."

I denna utbildningssociologiska studie placeras folkhögskolorna in i det svenska utbildningslandskapet och presenteras som intermediära utbildningsinstitutioner vilka står i relation till studieprogram på gymnasieskolorna samt efterföljande studiealternativ på högskolorna.

Först presenteras en kartläggning av volymtillströmningen till folkhögskolorna under den senaste femtonårsperioden, där vi visar att antalet deltagare på allmänna linjer har minskat, medan antalet deltagare på de särskilda linjerna inriktade mot musik- och annan estetisk verksamhet haft betydande volymökningar. Därefter används registerdata från SCB över folkhögskolekohorter mellan åren 2000 och 2002 för att analysera vilka sociala grupper det är som studerat på vilken typ av folkhögskoleutbildning. Resultaten visar att folkhögskolorna används av olika sociala grupper beroende på om de fokuserar på musiklinjer, estetlinjer och allmänna linjer. Ytterligare skillnader i rekryteringen framträder om man jämför olika profiler på musikområdet. Ett särskilt fokus för analysen är rekryteringen till Skurups och Fridhems jazzlinjer, vilket vi tar som exempel på hur somliga folkhögskoleprogram utvecklats till elitlinjer.

The article reminds two initiatives related to the concept of folk high schools addressed to Polish immigrants staying in Sweden. The first concerned the organization of the Polish Folk High School for Polish soldiers in the second half of 1940, the second one - the attempts to bring into being the Panslavic Folk High School for immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe in the 1980s.

The sketch shows the role of folk high schools in promoting an idea of ​​sustainable development, noting that making the educational tasks of this type is an important feature of the functioning of these institutions since the beginning of their existence.

Henrik Nordvall & Pelle Åberg: The folk high school as a myth: Global dissemination and utilization of Nordic popular education ideas. Pedagogisk Forskning i Sverige, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 1–18. Stockholm: ISSN 1401-6788

The article demonstrates how Nordic ideas of folk high schools have spread globally. To study this process of dissemination, analytical tools from neo-institutional organizational theory, especially the concept of myths, are used. By surveying and interpreting international literature, three ideal-typical patterns for the dissemina-tion of folk high school ideas are presented (migration, inspiration and export). These are illustrated by examples from educational institutions in Japan, the USA, Tanzania, Argentina and Bangladesh. Different conceptions of the folk high school have been used to legitimate and organize various adult education institutions and activities across the world. This has attracted significant international interest but has hardly been dealt with in Swedish pedagogical research. This article argues that using tools from neo-institutional theory to study the dissemination of ideas concerning the folk high school is a fruitful approach, which contributes to Swedish research on folkbildning and links this field to international, comparative, pedago-gical research.

Keywords: folk high school, myth, legitimacy, dissemination of ideas

"I ett flertal teorier inom fältet vuxnas lärande, liksom i dokument i specifika skolformer inom svensk vuxenutbildning, ges begreppet reflektion en frontposition i relation till lärande. Begreppet är dock problematiskt i att det har flera olika innebörder som inte nödvändigtvis harmonierar med varandra. Vidare saknar skolformer i utbildningssystemet didaktiska riktlinjer för utformningen av undervisning. Ett spänningsfält kan skönjas här, mellan å ena sidan explicita krav på reflektion i dokument med bäring på specifika skolformers verksamhet, och å andra sidan teoretisk och didaktisk oklarhet kring begreppet reflektion.
    Syftet med uppsatsen är att identifiera folkhögskollärares beskrivningar av hur de utformar undervisning för deltagares reflektion. Den kvalitativa metodansatsen är tematisk analys och det empiriska datamaterialet består av intervjuer med sex folkhögskollärare.
    Resultaten av analysen gestaltas i fem övergripande teman av beskrivningar: samtal utformas som perspektivvidgning och återkoppling både i det fysiska och virtuella klassrummet; skrivande utformas via chatt eller för hand genom dikt- och brevskrivande eller som textframställningar i linje med olika skrivgenrer. Dessutom som formuleringar i punkt- eller verbform, som skrivstafett eller som reflektion utifrån givna frågor och uppgifter; frågor utformas dels med öppna frågor som inleds med Vad, Hur, Varför, Vilka och Var och dels som ja/nej-frågor; samspel utformas i helgrupp, i smågrupper eller enskilt med läraren; intryck utformas med textbaserade och visuellt baserade material, auditivt och audiovisuellt material, dofter och gemensamma upplevelser."

This chapter presents a proposition to read anew the educational/androgogic achievements of the known Polish adult educator Ignacy Solarz (1891-1940?), emphasizing the common, socially universal educational values and practical educational actions. Only such an approach to Solarz’s legacy can, as believes the author of the article, help to integrate him in the general Polish educational legacy and to save the activist from gradual but clearly progressing fall into oblivion.

This essay describes the international movement of democracy schools called Escuela Nueva, or New School. It argues that the striking success of the movement challenges fatalism and also the anti-institutional mindset widespread both on the left and among community organizers.

I Gränsöverskridande folkbildning–om resurser, nätverk och transnationellt engagemang tar
Folkbildningsrådet, tillsammans med Mimer vid Linköpings universitet, ett samlat grepp om
folkhögskolornas och studieförbundens transnationella arbete. I rapporten redovisas
resultaten av en kartläggning av de transnationella aktiviteter som genomfördes under 2009.
Kartläggning bygger på en enkätundersökning som riktades till landets alla folkhögskolor
och studieförbund.