![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
In this article, we direct our focus on some of the recent activities undertaken by popular education institutions in Sweden in relation to the refugee challenge in 2015. The aim is to analyse how these popular education activities are shaped as specific communities of practice, through the ways they are described by those who organised these, and what meaning newly arrived refugees create regarding their participation in these practices. Drawing on a socio-cultural understanding of participation and learning, we analyse interviews with newly arrived refugees, principals, managers, teachers and study circle leaders. Our analysis illustrates how popular education emerge as specific communities of practice different compared to the regular education system; how these practices are shaped as practices of stability and learning; and how newly arrived refugees construe these practices as important in their current engagement across a range of communities in the role as newcomers.
Acknowledgements
This article is part of the research programme Migration, learning and social inclusion. The data has been generated by several colleagues, and the analytical work is a co-production. We wish to acknowledge the contributions made by the following colleagues: Robert Aman, Sabine Gruber, Ronny Högberg, Nedzad Mesic and Sofia Nyström, all senior researchers at Linköping University in Sweden.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).