ABSTRACT
In this article we have analysed the ways a discourse on individualisation is taking shape within adult education in Sweden, how it operates, and what effects it has in terms of shaping student subjectivity. Drawing on a post-structural theorisation we analyse interviews with teachers and students in municipal adult education and folk high schools (FHS). The analysis illustrates how both institutions contribute to the shaping of individualised subjectivities, although differently. At the end, a general question is raised about what happens with the democratic function of adult education in general when a discourse on individualisation operates in the ways described and, more specifically, asks what is happening to FHS as an educational practice that upholds its self-image as a last bastion of a collective notion of learning and subjectivity and nurturing an educational practice of learning democracy?
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Independent schools are non-public in terms of ownership and they must be accepted as such through an application to and evaluation by the national agency of education. If accepted to launch a school in a municipality, they are then allocated a voucher, which is publically funded, for each student they recruit.