Nordic Lights

Education for Nation and Civic Society in the Nordic Countries, 1850-2000

The democratic model of education is often hailed as Norden's present to the world. Free adult education and the common school system were established for the purposed of nation-building, at the same time giving rise to the civic society. However, when faced with the rules of market economy and the aspirations of the new middle classes, popular education came into crisis. 

In this book, the past and the present of the Nordic model is studied by nine scholars from Estonia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. They question its viability, as well as the credibility of its official history. They look at the treatment accorded to indigenous ethnic minorities, such as the Saamis and the Finns, during the period of nation-building. The fate of the common school in the educational market place of the 1990s is also scrutinized; how has the common school fared against the instrumentalisation of knowledge and education?

Finnish Literature Society, 2001

paperback, 244 pages, 6.9 x 0.6 x 9.8 inches