Introduction - download the publication from: FAEA - Roadmap for Popular Adult Education 2030 final.pdf

The current decade has begun with a lot of reasons for concern: a pandemic, accelerating climate change, economic polarisation, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the challenges to Western democracy are just a few examples of the many factors making the future unpredictable. There is reason to be worried as problems are accumulating, and fear and insecurity take hold of the mind.

‘Popular adult education is a historical phenomenon whose Finnish variation and implementation has placed Finland on the world map as part of the Nordics and Europe.’ This is a freely translated quote from the strategy #VST22 of Finnish Adult Education Association (FAEA), that assertively emphasizes ecosocial Bildung as the symbol and commitment of the 2020s. This demonstrates the long and impactful arc of non-formal and popular adult education evolution in Finland, as part of a wider phenomenon. The question is: how will this arc of development continue?

Modern strategy work is no longer linear, it doesn’t follow the logic of production lines and obvious cause-and-effect relationships. In the strategy #VST22 clear distance was taken from that type of outdated thinking:

‘We are living in a world where everything affects everything. The ecosystem thinking is a guiding principle of the 2020s in politics, finance, and in the merging learning environments of the popular adult education. In the educational narrative, the term “ecosystem” is now linked, not only to natural ecosystems but also to digital transformation that creates seamless ecosystems as part of lifelong learning and employment services in Finland. FAEA is asking whether all citizens have equal opportunities to be part of the ecosystem of continuous and lifelong education?

In educational policy, a strong transition from degree-based to competence-based policies is taking place. This gives popular adult education an opportunity to influence on how it will appear on the renewed map of the education system. The roadmap is seeking an answer to this key question, relying on value-based education policy, where popular adult education is seen as a platform for lifelong learning.

The roadmap of Finnish popular adult education is aiming for this ambitious goal in education policy on three in-twined paths of change: ecosocially sustainable, recognized and validated, and flexible and emergent popular adult education.