The idea of basing professional practice on evidence has been discussed worldwide for decades across various societal sectors, with education being a key focus (Eryaman & Schneider, 2017). Within the education sector, a prominent discourse concerns the issue of integrating research and practice-based knowledge to, among others, improve student learning. Aligning with such discourse, Sweden became the first country to mandate by Law in 2010 that education in the public school system must rest on scientific foundation and proven experience (Rapp et al., 2017). Consequently, all teachers in compulsory and upper secondary schools, as well as municipal adult education, must adapt to this law. To help teachers with interpretation and implementation, educational authorities provide guidance on how research-based methods and routines can improve teaching (e.g., Swedish National Agency for Education, 2014, 2020). However, one of the main adult education institutions in Sweden, the folk high schools (FHS), is governed by different legislation.

FHS are instead based on the ideal of “free and voluntary” popular education (Bill 2013/14:172; Laginder et al., 2013). This freedom allows schools to develop their own courses and organize teaching in ways they seem fit. No state-reinforced standardized curricula regulate these courses. At the same time, such freedom poses challenges for teachers in interpreting their teaching mission, particularly regarding central pedagogical concepts (Harlin, 2014). Although more independent than the public school system, FHS are influenced by broader societal ideas and discourses within education. Thus, for example, policies of basing teaching on scientific foundation and proven experience are picked up by FHS themselves; this is the case with those schools who provide the youth recreation leader program which prepares adults for work with children and young people. Since 1991 these schools, in agreement with the non-profit umbrella organization Fritidsledarskolorna, state that education must build on scientific foundation and from 2010 also on proven experience (Ruschkowski, 2020). In doing so, these schools deliberately use their freedom to govern themselves in line with national policies that formally do not legally regulate their activities. This freedom to self-govern, therefore, makes the ways in which these policies are picked up within FHS an interesting empirical case for further scrutiny.

This study aims to identify how key policy actors within Swedish FHS interpret and transform the policy of education based on scientific foundation and proven experience over time. The selection of actors, based on their relevance to the youth recreation leader program, includes Fritidsledarskolorna, the Swedish National Board of Education, the Swedish National Council of Adult Education, and the Swedish government. Drawing on curriculum theory (Lindensjö & Lundgren, 2014), the study enables analysis of what constitutes valid knowledge, the purpose for its selection, and who is involved in the selection process. The analysis builds on 124 policy documents, totaling 7300 pages, including annual organization reports, curricula, and government bills and reports spanning from 1974 to 2024. Preliminary findings indicate three transformations: (1) from education based on proven experience to education based on scientific foundation; (2) from education based on scientific foundation as the teaching content to scientific foundation as the teaching carry-out; and (3) from the purpose of education based on scientific foundation and proven experience being uniformity to the purpose being quality. 

This study contributes to the dialogue on how policy is shaped in schools that use their freedom to self-govern in line with national policies that formally do not regulate their activities. Such contribution illustrates which meanings are made possible through policy, which in turn shapes some of the possibilities for how teaching and learning might be organized in adult education.

References

Bill 2013/14:172. Allas Kunskap – Allas Bildning [Everybody’s Knowledge – Everybody’s Bildung]. Government Offices of Sweden. https://data.riksdagen.se/fil/EEC16A17-3600-49FE-A33E-5F3A9C41B0B2

Eryaman, M. Y., & Schneider, B. (2017). Introduction. In M. Y. Eryaman & B. Schneider (Eds.), Evidence and public good in educational policy, research and practice (Vol. 6, pp. xvii–xxxi). Springer.

Harlin, E.-M. (2014). Om folkhögskollärares professionalisering med video som verktyg [On folk high school teachers’ professionalisation with video as a tool]. In Årsbok om folkbildning 2013. Forskning & utveckling (pp. 90–102). Föreningen för folkbildningsforskning.

Laginder, A.-M., Nordvall, H., & Crowther, J. (Eds.). (2013). Popular education, power and democracy: Swedish experiences and contributions. Niace.

Lindensjö, B., & Lundgren, U. P. (2014). Utbildningsreformer och politisk styrning [Educational reform and political governance] (2nd ed.). Liber.

Rapp, S., Segolsson, M., & Kroksmark, T. (2017). The Education Act – conditions for a research-based school. A frame-factor theoretical thinking. International Journal of Research and Education, 2(2), 1–13. https://hj.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1132830/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Ruschkowski, A. (2020). Folkhögskolans utformning av vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet: En mixad-metodstudie med fritidsledarutbildningen i fokus [The design of scientific foundation and proven experience in Swedish folk high schools: A mixed methods study focusing on the Youth recreation leader program] [Report]. https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-201567

Swedish National Agency for Education. (2014). Research for classrooms: Scientific knowledge and proven experience in practice.

Swedish National Agency for Education. (2020). Att ställa frågor och söka svar: Samarbete för vetenskaplig grund och beprövad erfarenhet [Asking questions and seeking answers: Collaboration on scientific foundation and proven experience].