Folk high schools are part of popular, or liberal adult education in Sweden.

By participating in the general course at a folk high school, students who

have failed to meet the requirements necessary for continued study at

university level have a second chance to fulfil such requirements. This paper

describes different approaches of Swedish folk high schools with regard to

preparing their participants for university studies. The paper also discusses

how these different ways of working affect how participants perceive

university studies and how these perceptions affect their choices of whether

or not to continue on to university after completion of their folk high school

education. Based on empirical data collected through free associations,

interviews with then-current and former folk high school participants,

articles from a leading folk high school teacher magazine, and material

found on the folk high schools’ homepages, the results show that throughout

the history of the Swedish folk high school, this institution has remained true

to two basic ideas: the idea of differentiation and the idea of adaptation.

The results also show that folk high schools work in different ways with

regard to widening participation, depending on which of these two ideas

they tend to focus on most. The prevalence of these two fundamental ideas

explains why different social identities and different representations exist

among the participants. The idea of folk high school as something different

and special leads to representations of folk high school as an alternative to

other forms of education and to representations of university as something

difficult and different than folk high school. The second idea – that folk high

school must adapt to the surrounding community – leads to representations

of folk high school as a second chance and of university as a goal.