The Folk high School as Mirrors of Society: Sociological Perspectives on the Educational Offerings of Folk High Schools 1868-2018

For over 150-years, folk high schools have been an integral part of the educational landscapes in the Nordics, gradually transforming their educational provision and program offerings as these societies modernized.

The aim of this consolidation grant is to use the program descriptions of folk high schools as heuristic objects for understanding how these schools have presented and legitimized themselves and to investigate broader societal changes that took place as Sweden modernized (1868-2018).

Since these schools lack any state-enforced curriculum they have adapted their program offerings to changing conditions in the world around them, such as changes in the education systems, culture, and the labor market.

This organizational fluidity makes the FHS educational programs into interesting documents to analyze over the longue durée as they can mirror the values and ideals that were characteristic of Swedish society at any given time.

The consolidation project provides new sociological insight into the transformations of a century-old Nordic institution and is conducted in 3 steps.

First, we digitize a unique archival material of annual reports from hundreds of Swedish schools, producing a database and open educational resource. Secondly, we conduct large-scale research using the texts and images from this database.

Finally, we going to compare how the Swedish schools presented themselves to match changing educational demands and to similar schools in other countries.