Cuts in liberal adult education strike our society’s edificational core
What are educational rights, and what significance, role and position does liberal adult education have in safeguarding educational rights? And how do educational rights justify the status of liberal adult education and efforts to safeguard it in society?
Online publication series brings up topical issues relating to educational rights
Different societal and environmental crises as well as the economic situation and austerity policy challenge both the operating conditions of liberal adult education and the lives of individual people. The new online publication series (in Finnish) will draw attention to realisation of educational rights, but also issues of obligations, in liberal adult education. The series is part of the Year of Sivistys programme. The articles published in this multidisciplinary online publication series are research-based popularized contributions and policy briefs. This series edited by Iina Järvinen, Jenni Pätäri and Björn Wallén is organized by Freedom and Responsibility of Liberal Adult Education (SVV) programme.
What is liberal adult education?
Currently, liberal adult education encompasses adult education centres, folk high schools, study centres, summer universities and sports institutes. These institutions currently number slightly less than three hundred and cover the whole country. This year's drastic cuts in statutory government transfers will significantly undermine the operating conditions of liberal adult education, which relies heavily on these transfers for its funding. The statutory government transfers are essential in securing not only the quality and continuity of the work but also regional equality. Increases in course fees ensuing from the cuts harm the accessibility of liberal adult education leaving people out as they can’t afford it. (see e.g. KSVS 2023; Vuorikoski & Manninen 2023).
Legal mainstays of liberal adult education
The educational rights enshrined in the Constitution of Finland lay the foundation for the individual’s educational rights. Among other things, they safeguard the right to free basic education, but also other education, training and self-development (section 16 of the Constitution). (See Järvinen 2024.) An opportunity to participate in liberal adult education is one way of realising educational rights. In order to be realised in practice, fundamental educational rights require actions by the public authorities and regulation at the level of ordinary acts. The Act on Liberal Adult Education is an example of this regulation. However, the obligation imposed on public authorities to safeguard educational rights is not precise in its content. This results in many kinds of conflicts between people's self-motivated educational needs on the one hand and on the other liberal adult education organised on the basis of different societal challenges.
Towards social justice
In addition to legislation and political steering, cultural and educational practices play a key role in the realisation of social justice and educational rights.It is important to recognise how policies and educational practices aiming for inclusion that guide liberal adult education can be exclusive and discriminatory.
In the light of research evidence, the preconditions for promoting social justice and safeguarding educational rights include:
- identifying and acknowledging different social groups
- examining the distribution of societal resources and different groups’ and individuals’ opportunities for participation in parallel
- educational policies and practices that do not reduce participants into objects to be corrected or masses demanding to have their needs met
- recognising participants as co-actors and fellow citizens (“withizens”), both in the development of liberal adult education and efforts to build society.
People's ability to see each other as equals is vulnerable. This is why such institutions as liberal adult education and reciprocal political cooperation are needed to realise social justice. Reciprocal cooperation also includes the active involvement of liberal adult education stakeholders in decision-making relevant to it.
Rights, policies and values are intertwined
The objectives, programmes and policies of edification are never neutral or without options, as they are always linked to values. They are associated with the questions of a good society and life. They additionally guide decision-making processes, funding, and education, teaching and assessment practices. Neither does legislation as a whole always serve unambiguous or uniform objectives. Fundamental rights and human rights are closely associated with political struggles and, for example, decisions on the possibilities of realising rights. (See Niemi 2019; also Rautiainen & Korhonen 2019, 21–22.)
Education and educational rights, safeguarding them and making decisions on them, require societal debate and multidisciplinary research on their significance and the conditions for their realisation. Our publication series strives to initiate this type of multidisciplinary discussion within and about liberal adult education.
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Iina Järvinen works as a postdoctoral researcher in the JuRe project at the University of Turku.
Jenni Pätäri coordinates the Freedom and Responsibility of Liberal Adult Education (SVV) programme while working on her doctoral dissertation on the history of liberal adult education in the Finnish university.
This blog is based on an article by Järvinen, I. & Pätäri, J. (2024). Sivistyksellisiä oikeuksia, arvoja ja käytäntöjä – avauksia vapaaseen sivistystyöhön. In I. Järvinen, J. Pätäri & B. Wallén (ed.) Sivistykselliset oikeudet ja vapaa sivistystyö. Helsinki: Vapaa Sivistystyö Association. Available at: [https://www.vapausjavastuu.fi/sivistykselliset-oikeudet-jarvinen-patari/].
Other references
Järvinen, I. (2024). Riittävää ja kohtuullista? Julkisen vallan vastuu vapaassa sivistystyössä. Available at: [https://www.vapausjavastuu.fi/sivistykselliset-oikeudet-jarvinen/].
KSVS (2023). Keski-Suomen vapaan sivistystyön piiri. Keski-Suomen vapaan sivistystyön oppilaitosten kannanotto vapaan sivistystyön valtionrahoituksen leikkauksiin. Available at: [https://kesayo.jyu.fi/fi/ajankohtaista/ajankohtaista/keski-suomen-vapaan-sivistystyon-oppilaitosten-kannanotto-vapaan-sivistystyon-valtionrahoituksen-leikkauksiin].
Niemi, H.-M. (2019). Ihmisarvo ja ihmisoikeudet. In M. Aalto-Heinilä & V. Kurki (ed.) Mitä oikeudet ovat? Filosofian ja oikeustieteen näkökulmia. Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 129–146.
Rautiainen P. & Korhonen, O. (2019). Millä ehdoilla? Kuinka elinikäistä oppimista säännellään? Sitra reports 154. Helsinki: Sitra. Available at: [https://www.sitra.fi/julkaisut/milla-ehdoilla/].
Vuorikoski, K.-M. & Manninen, J. (2023). Opintokeskusten koulutustarjonta tutkittu. Sivistystori blog of the Freedom and Responsibility of Liberal Adult Education (SVV) programme. Available at: [https://www.vapausjavastuu.fi/opintokeskusten-koulutustarjonta-tutkittu/].
