Abstract
The aim of this article is to shed light on how the democratic ideal of institutionalised Nordic popular education is realised through an ethnographic field study in an English as a foreign language study circle. The study focuses on how participants express their citizenship when taking part in the study circle. Citizenship is viewed as a dynamic concept comprising the aspects of ‘being’ and ‘acting’ and constructed in and through social interaction. The study circle is arranged as a classroom practice: The study circle leader organises the activities, while the participants engage in exercises and attempt to learn correct usage. Through their participation, the participants take individual responsibility for what they see as their lack of sufficient knowledge of English. The participants describe their participation as a personal and voluntary investment in themselves. In light of the study, the individual stance is discussed as limiting possibilities for responsibility and thus expressions of citizenship.
Highlights
‘Pick up a language you have almost forgotten, discover an entirely new one, or renew your knowledge
Study circles are part of Swedish popular education, which consists of state-subsidised educational practices with high levels of participation with regard to the entire population
In combination with a lack of previous studies focusing on study circle practices as such (Nordzell, 2011), there is a need for further research on study circle practices from a democratic and citizenship perspective
Summary
The idea of Nordic popular education as a fundamentally collective endeavour has been questioned in recent years. Korsgaard (2008) has described contemporary popular education as interwoven with individualisation and ‘personal enlightenment (or education)’ (personlig oplysning, Korsgaard, 1997). Sundgren (2012) has proposed that the function of modern Swedish popular education can be understood as ‘making the circumstances a bit more meaningful’, not as providing an arena for political struggles or deliberations. Niemelä (2011) has suggested a similar development of increasing emphasis on individualisation and personal development in Finnish popular education since the 1960s. A small but growing body of research on citizenship education and popular education is addressing questions like this, focusing on the discourses (e.g., Fejes, Olson, Rahm, Dahlstedt, & Sandberg, 2016) or enactments (e.g., Rahm & Fejes, 2015) of citizenship among students. These perspectives are positioned as an alternative to highlighting, for example, employability questions, skills needed, or more philosophical perspectives in relation to citizenship education. The article ends with a concluding discussion that focuses on the dilemmas in this study circle in relation to the democratic potentials of study circle practices
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