What is the SVV Program?

The SVV Program is a Finnish collaborative research program focusing on liberal adult education and popular education. The acronym stands for Sivistystyön Vapaus ja Vastuu (Freedom and Responsibility of Liberal Adult Education and Popular Education). Established in 2011 by Tampere University (TAU), the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), Åbo Akademi University (ÅA), and the Finnish Adult Education Association (FAEA), the program is funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture and coordinated by FAEA. Its aim is to strengthen research and research collaboration in the field and it is open to anyone interested in popular education research. We seek to bring together researchers and students from different disciplines, practitioners, policymakers, and other experts. SVV serves as a forum for dialogue between research, practice, and policy.

Vapaa sivistystyö has no exact English equivalent, reflecting its unique historical and cultural development. Common translations include liberal adult education, popular education, and non-formal education (as well as Nordic popular education and Nordic adult education). While each translation highlights certain aspects of the concept, none fully captures the meaning of vapaa sivistystyö. The translation liberal adult education is the one most commonly used by Finnish educational authorities and national organisations. 

At the heart of the concept lies the idea of sivistys, which is related to the German concept of Bildung and the Nordic concepts of bildning and dannelse. This encompasses ethical growth, cultural understanding, social responsibility, and democratic participation. Vapaa sivistystyö draws on several intellectual traditions, including the Anglo-European tradition of liberal learning, the Nordic tradition of folkbildning, and the German tradition of Bildung. Rather than merely adopting elements from these traditions, it has integrated them into a distinctive educational and cultural tradition of its own. 

Read more

The SVV Program, its history and future (article on EPALE-forum)

Sivistystori blog articles translated in English in collaboration with EPALE Finland

Other contributions in English

The SVV framework

Memorandum of Understanding 2011. MoU between Finnish Adult Education Association (VST/FAEA) and University of Eastern Finland, Tampere University and Åbo Akademi in summer 2011.

Aims and objectives

The tradition of liberal adult education and popular education in Nordic countries is long, strong and influential. It is an essential part of the Nordic ethos and building of societal welfare. During the past decades popular education has been in major transition that stems from the international developmental features such as the neo-liberalistic and market-oriented financial policy, the opportunities offered by new technology for even faster innovations and real-time operations and the democracy-gap between supra-national agencies and nation-states. On national level the population in the Nordic countries is aging and migrating from rural to urban areas, the amount of immigrants is growing, municipal service structure is being rationalized and the staffs in popular education institutes are being renewed. Since the 1980s and 90s popular education has tried to cope with diminishing public support and tightening controls, as well as with increasing competition in education markets. At the same time popular education has also tried to maintain its tradition of voluntary studies.

The SVV program asks how the mission, methods, meanings and agency are being transformed in popular education and what the consequences are to personal, collective and meta-collective adulthood in Finland and in Nordic countries. Furthermore, it aims to analyze relationships between actors in governance, policy, research and popular education. Last but not least it aims to develop collaboration models for sustainable joint research and studies of popular education cross Finland and the Nordic countries.

The Finnish and Nordic research and collaboration of the field has been fragmentary in nature and often based on individual dissertations. Enhancing and cumulating research and revitalizing the societal value of popular education will require new methods of collaboration. SVV builds on the Nordic tradition of study circles with their democratic and inclusive principles and aims at joint research that benefits both research and practice of popular education. It develops understanding and promotes research-based knowledge and insight into popular education and its societal, practical and political function in collaboration between relevant actors. It offers a research-based platform for the scattered national networks to come together and share and shape their visions.

Theoretical and methodological approach

In SVV the distinctiveness of popular education is considered to crystallize in its missions, methods, meanings and agency, which actualize its edificationality, freedom and responsibility. These are related to transforming societal-historical contexts, with focus on implementation of national and transnational policies and their definitions of quality, efficiency and of competency. Crucial examples are changes in municipality structures and financing systems.

Central research questions are

  1. How is edification, freedom and responsibility expressed within the missions, methods and agency of liberal adult education and popular education?
  2. How is quality, efficiency and competency expressed in the implementation of the policy programmes and in solutions about municipality structures and financing which are conditioning them?
  3. How is quality, efficiency and competency expressed within the missions, methods, meanings and agency of popular education?
  4. How do interpretations of edification, freedom and responsibility relate to interpretations of quality, efficiency and competency in the missions, methods, meanings and agency of popular education?
  5. What consequences do the above-mentioned have for liberal adult education organizations and for adulthood in its personal, collective and meta-collective meanings?

SVV develops new methodological approaches, which match with popular education as a research target. These may include elements of joint research, where capacities of researchers and practitioners are joined in developing knowledge. The challenge is getting across both the knowledge embedded in local practices, and theoretical knowledge, and recognizing their differences and oppositions (e.g. Vähämäki 2010). On the other hand, approaches remind action research or developmental evaluation where researchers, together with other actors, deconstruct and make visible meanings embedded in documents, programmes, practices and experiences, which are related to the missions, methods and agency in popular education. At the same time they reflect on new, alternative interpretations and their practical consequences. (e.g. Heikkinen & Lamminpää 2002, Kemmis & Wilkinson 1998; Manninen & Kauppi 2008.)

The research process will also be multi-layered, multi-methodical and meta-analytical. Responses to research questions will be investigated by analyzing and synthesizing individual researches which may differ in thematic, methodical and local focus, for example by analyzing documents or web-materials, through surveys and interviews with different actors and by observation and discussions.

Expected outcomes

SVV joins researchers, educators and policymakers to

  • do meta-analysis about existing research on liberal adult education and popular education
  • discuss research needs experienced among staff and policymakers
  • draw conclusions for improving practices and policies
  • develop a proposal for research on liberal adult education and popular education in the Nordic countries
  • publish synthesis reports based on analyses, discussions and conclusions.

Main activities

  • Joint research meetings (twice a year)
  • Thesis collaboration
  • Researching study circles and
  • Publications

Main funding

  • Ministry of Education and Culture
  • Alfred Kordelin Foundation

Examples on previous activities organized in English