Focus on study circles

• Usko Lahti Maaseudun Sivistysliitto ry

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33336/aik.96569

Abstract

The article deals with the development and problems encountered during the recent years in the study circle type of adult education. The author looks into the quantitative development of study circles and the reasons underlying this development. Secondly, the article examines the picture formed of study circles as the result of the questionnaire study directed in 1987 at study leaders employed by The Union for Rural Education. Study circle activity has undergone a radical slump and, at the same time, study circles as a type of activity are breaking away from their traditional roots, from socially oriented organizations. Unprecedented specialization dominates study circle activity; on the one hand, in direction of scholastically oriented influential groups. The main problem, according to the author, is how to integrate study circles into the more general education system.