In the past decades’ global debate on grounding professional practices in evidence, Sweden became the first country to take a stand by legislating in 2010 that education in the public school system must be based on a scientific foundation and proven experience (Rapp et al., 2017). This Education Act applies to all teachers within compulsory and upper secondary schools and municipal adult education. However, another form of Swedish adult education - the folk high schools - is instead governed by the ideal of "free and voluntary" popular education (Laginder et al., 2013). Such freedom provides different opportunities to both develop courses and organize teaching. Some folk high schools exercise their independence by self-governing through the Youth Recreation Leader (YRL) program, adopting national policies closely aligned with those of the Act (Ruschkowski, 2020). This paper addresses how the policy of education based on a scientific foundation and proven experience is taken up within the YRL program at folk high schools in Sweden. We draw on curriculum theory as developed by Lindensjö and Lundgren (2014), particularly the concepts of policy formulation, policy transformation, and policy realization, to analyze ways in which actors in the formulation arena interpret and transform this policy. The empirical data to be analyzed incorporated 63 documents within and beyond the YRL program from 1976 to 2017, spanning 4200 pages. These documents included the program’s national curriculum, government policies on the folk high school and Swedish popular education, and reports from the Swedish National Council of Adult Education. Preliminary findings suggest that early formulations of education based on a scientific foundation emphasize various collaborations with researchers in higher education. By contrast, later ones shift the focus toward teachers’ utilization of research-based literature in classrooms. Finally, the initial formulations on proven experience underscore teachers’ collaboration and professional development.