Community-based folk high schools in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark

Abstract

In the broader discussion of the American community college and how it has served as a model to other countries around the world (Kintzer and Bryant, 1998), little has been written about its impact in the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. This is likely because there is no direct counterpart to the community college in Scandinavia-instead, these countries offer a variety of educational opportunities which, collectively, serve the diversity of purposes met by community colleges in the United States. While the Scandinavian folk high school (known as folkehojskole in Denmark, folkehogskole in Norway, and folkhögskola in Sweden) has long been cited as the Scandinavian equivalent of America's community-based tertiary education system (e.g., see Greenberg, 1991), it is actually only one unique facet of Scandinavia's approach to nonuniversity adult education. Scandinavian countries meet the diverse goals of American community colleges in various ways; here, we focus specifically on folk high schools. This system of nonformal adult education originated in Denmark in the mid-1800s, and, like the community college system in America, was founded on the premise of welcom ing all who desire to learn, regardless of wealth, heritage or previous academic experience (AACC, 2007). Folk high schools emerged in response to the need to educate rural citizens who would not otherwise have access to higher education; since then, they have spread to urban areas as well, but continue to serve a unique set of functions in each Scandinavian country. In Norway and Denmark, folk high schools remain resolutely outside of the official educational system, offering a year of courses which do not directly contribute toward one's degree, but instead offer students the invaluable opportunity to explore various topics and subjects without concern for grades. In Sweden, folk high schools offer both a nongraded year off, as well as the opportunity for students to complete their upper secondary school requirements in a noncompetitive, individualized setting. © 2009 Springer Netherlands.