Folkbildning i (av)koloniseringens skugga : Demokrati, nationella mytologier och solidaritetens paradoxer

• In Sweden and among Swedish popular movements, there has long been a great willingness to share experiences from establishing the “Swedish model” of welfare and democracy with countries in other parts of the world. In this sharing of experience, popular adult education has played an important role. Over the years, there have also been several attempts to spread the “Swedish model” of education of this kind, i.e. study circles and folk high schools. Here, we analyse a large-scale project to establish Folk Development Colleges (FDCs) in Tanzania in the 1970s and 1980s, focusing on the ways in which Swedish popular adult educators have described the project. In theoretical terms, the article is based on a postcolonial framework, highlighting the continuing importance of the legacies of colonialism in today’s society. One of the main conclusions drawn is that, in the process of “exporting” the idea of popular adult education around the world, there is an ongoing formation of national self-images in contrast to images of “the Other”, involving a constant risk of reproducing ideas from a colonial past.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Keyword

post-colonialism

folk development collages

adult education

racism

Sweden

International education

Internationell pedagogik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)