DOCUMENT RESUME ED 134 489 SO 009 704 AUTHOR Paulston, Rolland G. TITLE Separate Education as an Ethnic Survival Strategy: The Finlandssvenska case. INSTITUTION Pittsburgh Univ., Pa. International and Development Education Program. PUB DATE Nov '6 NOTE 26p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (Washington, D.C., November 1976) EDRS PRICE MF-S0.83 HC-42.06 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Case Studies; Comparative Education; Controlled Environmentz Culture Conflict; *Educational Programs;- Educational Research; Elementary Secondary Education; Ethnic Grouping; *Ethnic Groups; Ethnic Studies; Ethnocentrism; Foreign Countries; Group Status; *Group Unity; Minority Groups; Nationalism; Social Change; *Typology IDENTIFIERS *Finland ABSTRACT A typology of ethnic education programs is suggested and a case study is presented where separate education for an ethnic group has been used to maintain and defend a separate ethnic identity. The typology rates ethnic education programs both by degree of normative and structural change being sought and by degree of control by ethnic groups. Supplemental ethnic studies education programs have low structure change and low ethnic control; alternative prograns, such as black, Chicano, and Native American studies, have high structure change and low ethnic control; defensive programs, such as the Amish who seek to control the content and ideological orientation of their educational programs, have low structure change and high ethnic control; and transformative programs, such as the American Indian Movement which takes a militant approach, have high structure change and high ethnic control. The case study examines a declining elite group which is striving to maintain ethnic identity and boundaries through defensive programs--the Svedish-speaking community in Finland. The minority community uses a variety of formal and nonformal educational programs to sustain group solidarity and ethnic identity. History and description of the rationale, ideology, goals, organization, and various data of the social movement show how and why the groupls educational programs are classified as defensive. Although the Swedish-speaking population has declined in numbers and influence since World War II, their separatist policy has defended their ethnicity. If decline continues, however, ethnic integration might occur. An extensive bibliography is included. (ND) Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal reproducibility are often encountered and this Affects the quality of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPY RIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY fonaxal. Ata/si-oa..) TG ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE NATIONAL IN sT,ToTE OF EDUCATION FURTHER REPRO DUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM RE. SuIRES PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION &WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OP EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN- ATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATE0 DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY SEPARATE EDUCATION AS AN ETHNIC SURVIVAL STRATEGY: THE FINLANDSSVENSKA CASE Rolland G. Paulston International and Development Education Program School of Education University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260 November 1976 Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D. C. , November 1976 I .ase do not use without permission. 2 Although the c.thnicity-educational change nexus would seem to be of increasing interest to educational anthropologists, there has been surprisingly little effort made to systematically delineate variables or examine relationships in specific field settings. We have, for example, little knowledge of how and to whai effect various ethnic groups have influenced ethnic-education programs in public schools or have created and used their own non-formal educational programs outside of super- ordinate control. We need to determine under what conditions groups mobilizing around cultural symbols-1. e., the "old" ethnicity,.as well as groups seeking to use ethnicity in resource competition--i.e., the "hew" ethnicity--have sought to use education in formal schools, in non-formal programs, and via the media and resocialization, et al, to help achieve ethnic-movement goals for individual and social change (Bennett, 1974; Despres, 1975;, Collins, 1976). A second research question might well ask about the pedagogical aims, processes, and outcomes of ethnic-education programs in various configurations of ideology and autonomy. In addition, we will also need to ask a third question concerning evaluation of ethnic-education programs. Here, we need to ascertain both anticipated and. unan,ticipated outcomes, and to produce generalizations concerning key factors influencing relative educational-program effectiveness.. In this paper, I would like to suggest a typology of ethnic-education programs and examine a case where separate education has been used since Wprld War 1 to maintain and defend a separate ethnic identity. Where most anthropological studies of ethnicity and education examine the educational problems of weak, low-status ethnic groups in,superordinate efforts to assimilate, enfold, or isolate, this case study will examine a rather unusual situation where a declining et. ltural, economic, and social elito has sought to maintain ethnic ideralty and boundaries through control 3 2 of a separate Swedish-speaking school system and widespread non-formal educational efforts. Before we examine the Swede-Finn case, however, it may be helpful to very briefly delineate the entire range of the phenomena under study, and to suggest some useful categories. One approach might be to sort out cases along the two dimensions of change and control as in Figure One below. Here, the vertical dimension is the degree of normative and structural change sought by program authorities and reflected in explicit learning goals. The horizontal dimension indicates the degree of control or autonomy from central educational authorities held by ethnic groups or movements seeking to influence ethnic-education ideology, outcomes, and the like. In the lower-left quadrant, for example, supplemental "ethnic studies, " ethnic-heritage programs, and/or "bilingual education" programs are offered In educational settings--in North America and Northern Europe-- dominated by superordinate elements with long traditions of using public schooling for acculturative and assimilationist ends. .Where these elite elements come under pressure for greater cultural pluralism yet continue to control, the response will be Type I programs,lpitfralistic educational experiences that Kjolseth (1972) argues are increasingly viewed by school authorities as the most effective route to assimilation. Supplemental programs are also discussed in Anderson (1970), Seifer (1973), and Gambino (1975). Where such programs come under greater influence from ethnic-revival activists, however, as in numerous Black Studies enclaves in higher ededucation, and numerous bilingual programs/inlocat southwestern communities whcre ethnic elements have made power gains, then ethnic-educational programs may reject essentially status-quo orientations and ethnic tokenism to seek greater ethnic consciouiness, solidarity, . and eradication of supposedly oppressive relationi with the creation of alternative programs in formal educational settings. 4 FIGURE ONE A TYPOLOGY OF ETHNIC EDUCATION PROGRAMS Alternative Programs; I. e., Black, Chicano, Native American, ef.al, Studies Enclaves in Higher Education; Same formal-school bilingual Education Programs Supplemental Programs: 1. e., Bilingual and Ethnic Heritage Programs in Formal Schools Transformative Programs; Black Panther, American Indian Movement, and other Militant Ethnic--MoVement Programs. Defensive Programs: I. e., knish, Swede-Finn, Saxon German, and most reservation Indian Programs, Danish- American Folk High School Programs, Hebrew- Schools, and Nation of Islam Low Degree of Ethnic Contial High 6 4 If, however, the pressure for change exceeds the tolerance of superordinate control elements, Alternative programs as in the upper-left quadrant will, as the structural-functionists rightly tell us, one way or another, be brought back to conformance with the consensus, or eliminated (Sizemore, 1972). Defensive programs in the lower-right-side quadrant are high in autonomy yet seek low to molleracVange. :1ather, they control the content and ideological orientation of their educational programs either within their own formal-school programs--as with the Amish or Swede-Finnsor within such ethnic formal and non-formal education programs as afternoon Hebrew schools, German schools, et al, to maintain valued cultural behaviors, preserve ethnic boundaries, and resist total assimilation into mainstream society (Wirth, 1943; Dozier, 1951; Medding, 1963; Jonsson, 1966, Mortenson, 1967; Hostetler, 1971 and 1972; National Indian Brotherhood, 1970Nria' 119972i; Weinman, 1972; Gray, 1975; and McArthur, 1976). Transformative programs in'the upper-right quadrant, because of their rejection of the existing cultural hegemony and high priority on individual change and social reconstruction, will always be found, if at all, in the non-formal, .or out-of-school educational sector where greater program autonomy is possible. Some examples of the more militant approach of transformative programs are included in Mecarelli (1975), Lejeune (1976), Mason (1976), and Paulston (1976b). Although neither space nor time is available here to place all ethnic- education programs into the typolcjy suggested, we have'noted some illustrative cases. Although all ethnic-education programs should fit somewhere in this schema, exact location will, of course, shift with changes in the educational goals and program autonomy of ethnic groups involved. 5 The, Swede-Finn (SF) Case anAs we have noted, U.. S. examples of separate education aset/hnic- survival strategy can be found in Hostetler's Amish studies, Mortensen's work on the Danish Lutheran folk high schools in America, and in a number of related works on ethnic minorities. These groups have sought, with varying success, to avoid complete assimilation into the American "melting pot" by providing alternative educational programs. Where the ownership of land and compact settlement reinforce ethhic-boundary maintenance, as with the Amish, separate education has powerfully contributed to ethnic survival. Where settlement has been scattered and ethnic-boundary maintenance weak, as with the Danes, separate education, at best, served to ease acculturation and assimilation' int-) the-national culture. We must go to Europe, however, for examples of relatively high- status ethnic minorities that control separate educational programs in efforts to maintain what is left of fading cultural and economic dominance. One group, for example, the "Saxon" ethnic Germans of Southern Transylvania in Romania, are now facing disintegration after some eleven centuries of educational and political autonomy (McArthur, p. 349). The Swedish-speaking community in Finland presents, in some ways, a comparable case. Yet, while they are clearly in decline, they continue to use a variety of formal and non-formal educational prograMs to sustain group solidarity and separate ethnic identity. In the remainder of this paper, I will address --using a culture-conflict perspective--the three research questions proposed at the outset. The Swede-Finn Ethnic Movement in Finland Ethnic movemenrs.as a type of.social movement begin with the articulation of a structural bind. This is most often a shared perception of injustice, 1. e., a painful discrepancy between the "way it is" and the "way it should be. " FolloWing a period .of more or less general discontent and unrest, movements pass through a somewhat disorganized popular state and, 8 6 if successful in securing adherents and resources, they develop leadership, ideology, and movement organizations, as well as slogans, symbols, and doctrine. The final stage is often institutionalization and a tendency towards oligarchy, a lessening of the we/they polarity, and maintenance of a new status quo. The SF ethnic movement (1. e., SFEM) in Finland has offered--during the past half-century or so, a clear example of this process, and especially of organizational development and goal displacement as the movement pro- gressed. We should note, however, that because the SFEM adherents represented a high percentage of Finland's economic and social elite as well as all Swedish-speaking farmers and fishermen, it is clearly an atypical ethnic movement. With its superior resources, historical dominance, and psychological advantage, and continuing, if diminished, political power, the movement presents a valuable "extreme case" of ethnic-movement efforts to use education for defense and survival under extremely advantageous conditions (Myhrman, 1937): The rationale put forward by SFEM leaders for separate education is best viewed in terms of the Movement's ideology and goals. We shall, accordingly, first.examine the ideational counterparts of these observable phenomena as presented by movement intellectuals and then cbscribe and assess educational contributions to advancement of movement goals. Ideology and Goals of the SFEM Although Sweden lost political control of Finland to Russia following the Napoleonic Wars, the Swedish-speaking elements, some 15 percent of the total population, continued to dominate the universities, the civil service, and economic and urban life (Wuorinen, 1931). Since the Early Middle Ages, Swedes occupied extensive coastal areas of Western and Southern Finland where the vast majority were free peasants and fishermen. The Finns, a non-Scandinavian people, came from the East and settled the interior forest regions. Contact between the tWo language-cultural 'groups took place largely through Swedish burghers who tended to dominate the few 9 urban centers in the Finnish areas. Swedish was also the language of government and administration, of the courts and legal system, and of all higher education and intellectual life. Although considerably isolated from 'the main currents of 19th-Century romanticism and nationalism, a Finnish literary movement developed in the 1840's and 1850's. This group of young intellectuals drew on Fegelian philosophy and Finnish folk culture to advocate the creation of a national unity ano a national culture based on exclusive uee of the Finnish language. Although they wrote largely in Swedish, the Young Finns rejected Swedish as foreign and viewed Finnish as the natural means of expressing the spiritual unity of the nation (Hama lain, 1966). The Swedish upper-class response to intense Finnish nationalism was, to, use a Swedish expression, a kulturaristokratisk policy. In the 1890's, for example, this small elite continued to dominate two of the four ruling Estates, 1. e., the Nobility and the Burghers. Thus, the emerging Swedish movement at that time represented only Swedish upper-class interests in defending the historical position of the Swedish language and the Swedish cultural heritage as well as its own privileged status and rule in the country. The Swedish-speaking common folk of the town, countryside, and littoral found no place in this movement. Rather, they were the only dimly realized reserves thought best left undisturbed by the raging culture conflict of the time (Eklund, 1914). Where Swedish.elite perceptions of the Swedish lower class was paternalistic, their view of Finnish nationalists and their call for "one language-one mind" was hostile. Professor C. G. Est lender, a spokesman for the educated Swedish classes defined this group's attitudes in his 1884 newspaper article, "My Position on the Language Question, " quoted in Myhrman (1937, p. 59): What I want to emphasize is that my upbringing was thoroughly Swedish. "I came into conta'cts with Finns all the time. My playmates were sometimes Finns; the maids and the 10 8 hired men were Finns. So I learned the Finnish language as well as the Swedish. But I never regarded it very highly. To me it was the language of the maids and the hired men--and of the peasants. It is hare to describe the curious attitude I had-- and have--toward the Finns. I was very fond of some of them, and I was willing to use their language to a certain extent. Sometimes I even felt a passionate patriotism that included the Finns as well as the Swedes of my'country. But all the time there was a feeling of superiority, that I belonged to a better race, and was different from them. As I grew older, this feeling was emphasized because of the Finnish attitude toward us Swedes. It became absolute contempt. By the time I left Finland I had no use at all for either the Finns or their language, because of the behavior politically. I felt they had betrayed the country. By 1906, however, the constitutional campaign in ppposition to mounting Russification and ensuing Jemocratization had ended Swedith political control. With Swedish control of legislation and the ar%ninistration swept away and with intensifying Finnish nationism overcorning all obstacles, the Swedish leaders, facing total defeat, sought a new basis on which to rebuild their cause. This effort saw the creation of the Swedish People's Party in Ma y 1906, a largely successful effort to reject class divisions and to mobilize the entire SF population. The need to draw the indifferent and inarticulate Swedish masses into active participation in a Swedish nationality move- ment to secure their heightened perception of the ethnic-threat-survival bind has subsequently been the task of a variety of movement organizations down to the present day. The movement, thus, has sought, especially before World War II, to include all Swedish-speaking Finns within an ethnic solidarity group where "we-they" distinctions will be heightened and maintained. This mobiliza- tion of ethnic identity became necessary to support the movement's ideological argument that there exists in Finland a political Finlandic nationality. This political nationality, or ethniCity, is claimed to be based on common historical traditions, a common government,* and geographical 1 1 9 unity. It includes the two cultural nationalities, Swedish and Finnish, which are based primarily on language. In this respect, the Swede-Finns mak tain, Finland is a culturally pluralistic society like Switzerland, Be.,..tium, or Great Britain. They view Finland as a "state of rights" (18ttsstat) where rights and relationships are established by law, rather than a population organized primarily on the primacy of language. They argue that both nationalities in Finland have existed side by side since the beginning of Finland's historY. Both have contributed to its development. With inde- pendence and the constitution of 1919, both Swedish and Finnish are accorded the legal status of national languages. With this crucial legal equality of Swedish as a national language, the SFEM has aggressively pursued a policy of separatism and cultural autonomy. This has included demands for civil-service appointments of the basis of merit, and mit ethnic affiliation, and state aid for cultural and educational institutions of both nationalities in accordance with identical principles. Equally important, the SF movement secured control of separate Swedish-language schools, and with generous support from wealthy Swede-Finn industrialists, the movement has created a number of non-formal educational institutions and cultural foundations. It is to these movement-education programs that we now turn. Organization 9! Swedish Ethnicity in the Struggle to Survive The attempt to counter Finnish nationalism with a mobilization of the entire SF population required the creation of a variety of new or adapted ethntc-movement organizations. The first Swedish cultural organization in Finland, the Friends Of the Swedish Public School, foutided in 1882,. became more widee'Pread and overtly concerned with the survival of Swedish ethnicity not only in the Swedish districts butwtlhe financial support of educationally disadvantaged Swedish minorities in Finnish communes as well. With the establishment of a special Swedish Department in the Central Bureau of Schools in April 1920, Finnish and Swedish schools were put in an 12 10 equal legal position. Since then Swede-Finns have maintained considerable autonomy in the running of the Swedish-language elementary and secondary schools (Hamalianen, p. 204). The extent of this autonomy stands in notable contrast to the strong and persistent efforts of educational authorities in Sweden to acculturate and assimilate the Finnish minority in Northern Sweden (Kuusela, 1973; Lundegard, 1973; Guikkila, 1974). With the legal provision of Swedish control of Swedish schools, however, the struggle for self-determination and autonomy increasingly took place in the national university and through the SFEM-controlled folk high schools. During the 1920's and 1930's Finnish university students in. league with the Agrarian Party battled to secure "the Finnification'of the University of Helsinki. " They complained that the continuing predominance of a Swedish faculty and instruction in Swedish placed an intolerable burden on Finnish students. The disproportionately large size of the Swedish-speaking educated class and the numerous Swedish secondary schools, moreover, caused, they further Claimed, an overproduction of Swedish-speaking uni- versity students in comparison to the total Swede-Finn population. In this bitter conflict the Swede-Finns were able to continue a bilingual policy at the University of Helsinki--there are still some 25 SF professors teaching in Swedish--and, in addition, secured a government-supported Swedish-language university, the Abo Academy in the Swedish west-coast heartland. With the advent of state-supported compulsory schooling, the Friends of the Swedish Public School Society, in their work for everything Swedish, shifted their support and initiated a great number of other largely non-formal and informal educational activities. Chief among these have been the Society's support of SF folk high schools, Ole publication of popular literature, and the founding of popular libraries, the provision of popular lectures, and, to great effect, the organization of the Swedish singing and 13 11 music festivals. Since 1941 this work has been supported by the more comprehensive SF movement organczation--the Swedish-Finland's Folkting. This SF PecnZe's Congress of elected representatives meets every other rear and maintains permanent and active sections on culture policy, social policy, economic policy and information, sand on constitutional matters. The Folkting forcefully represents interests of the SF population. It coordinates provision of social and cultural services, serves as a forum for debate and information within the movement and between the movement and Its larger national, reRional, and international contexts. We will now take note of two especially effective movement ethnic- education programs, the folk high schools and music festivals. Where the earlier Swedish class movement used its monopoly of the national uni- versity to maintain its privilege, the broader Swedish ethnic movement has been more directly served by the Swedish-language folk high schools. These residential colleges offer courses in practical subjects and domestic con- cerns. They offer opportunities for continuing education in a Swedish ethnic context, and they have "served as sources and centers of the ideology and sentiments of the Swedish nationality movement." (Myhrman, 1937, p. 100) The first Swedish folk high schools were founded by the Swedish Youth Movement in 1889. This group of university,students, without parallel in Scandinavia, sought to advance popular arid civic education ln rural areas and mixed districts so as to promote the Swedi,ih language and culture. By 1910 fourteen Swedish folk high schools with'Iover 400 students continued the Youth Movement's work to create ln young Swede-Finns'a desire to be Swedish ln mind and language and to actively support the aims and organized efforts of the whole Swedish ethnic movement. Although SF folk high schools continue to serve the rural and small- town population, the extension of compulsory education and the near disappearance of culture conflict in the Post-World War II ora has meant , that they must seek a new role in providing adult education. The ratio of 1 /1 12 autonomous folk high schools to the Swedish population in different regions (1971) remains impressive, however. It is presented in Figure 2 below: FIGURE TWO Region Swedish Population Number of FHS FHS/ Swedish Population dstra Nyland 38, 000 2 19, 000 Mellersta Nyland 85, 000 1: 85, 000 va stra Nyland 39, 000 2 19, 500 Nyland 162, 000 5 32, 400 Aboland 30, 000 2 15, 000 Aland 20, 000 1 20, 000 Södra Osterbotten 17, 000 2 8, 500 Mellersta Osterbotten 46, 000 3 15, 300 Norra Osterbotten 42, 000 2 21, 000 Osterbotten 105, 000 7 15. 000 Total 330, 000 15 22, 000 Source: Svenska Kulturfond (1974, p. 16). The SF singing and music festivals sought more directly to develop consciousness of ethnic identity and group solidarity. Swedish-speaking Finlanders had participated in bilingual singing and music festivals on a large scale until they became dominated by the Fennomen, or Finnish Nationalism Movement, members who used them as occasions for Fennomen propaganda. After 1891, separate Swedish music festivals were held yearly and reached theirWaihe/%0818t8clitifot in the 1930's. On Midsummer Day in 1932, for example, some 3, 000 youth from Swedish areas gathered in Helsingfors to sing traditional Swedish and SF songs and unite rural and urban Swedes in a sense of ethnic community and movement consensus. Since then, and to a much lesser extent, SF music festivals have taken place at the local, or provincial, level. They are supported--along with amateur theater and literary activitiesby a number of young peoples' societies and choruses where winter rehearsals are an important social activity. Related SF cultural organizations concerned with folk culture and social welfare use the summer music festivals, moreover, as occasions to meet and discuss their work and concerns. 1 5 13 The Swede-Finns continue to surpass national educational norms, and especially those S-F youth who live in towns and regional urban centers.,, Artiong the rural population, the relative educational advaniage of the Swede- Finns is slight, or nonexistent. In Figure 3, following, tHe continuing high priority of urban Swede-Finns on formal schooling is apparent. FIGURE THREE EDUCATIONAL LEVELS OF LANGUAGE GROUPS IN FINLAND (1670) Middle School Exam By Location Total Over 14 yrs. Higher Secondary Exam Total Over 14 yrs. National population 8.8% 11.6% 5.4% 7.1% SF pop. only 13.6% 16.9% 8.9% 11.0% Large Towns & Cities11.4% 14.9% 7.9% 10.3% SF pop. only 19.6% 23.9% 14..5% 17.6% Rural & Villages 6.0% 8.1% 2.7% 3 . 6% SF Pop. only 7.0% 8.8% 2.7% 3. 4% Source: Svenska Finlands Folkting, p. 27. We do have doraparable data on . languages of folk-high-school pupils, the number of schools related to the respective languages, and the proportion of Finnish and Swedish language in the general population as presented in Figure 4 below. Here we see, for the year 1963-64, enrollment in SF folk high schools 1. 88 times greater than the percent of Swede-Finns.in the total population. In the number of schools, there were 2.8 times as many SF folk high schools in Finland than would be a simple representation according to language spoken in the country. This disproportionate participation of the SF minority in all sectors of the national educational complex continues, but at a rapidly declining figure with the Grundskola reforms and increasing educational participation among the Finnish-speaking population (Ulfvens, 1972; Svenska Kulturfond, 1974). FIGURE FOUR FOLK HIGH SCHOOL ENROLLMENTS BY LANGUAGE GROUP IN FINLAND, 1960-1964 Years Item Finnish Number Percent Swedish Number Percent Total Number Percent 1960 Language 92. 4 7. 4 99. 8* 1960-61 Enrollment 5, 583 88. 8 701 11.2 6, 284. 100. 0 1S63-6q Enrollment 5, 076 86. 1 882 13. 9 5, 898 100. 0 1956-67 Enrollment 5, 320 8908 713 10. 2 1963-64 Schools 65 79. 0 17 21. 0 82 100. 0 *Other 0. 2 percent. Sources; Leskinen, p. 127; Larson, p. 139. 18 15 Evaluation: Educational Contributions to the Swedish Ethnic Movement This paper has briefly examined a little-known example of ethnic- movement education that might be best described, using the typology presented, as "defensive. " As such, it would fit in the lower right of Figure One along with other ethnic groups seeking to maintain ethnic boundaries and solidarity. While a variety of educational programs have clearly helped to mobilize SF ethnic identity and reinforce ethnic consciousness, other favorable factors have been more central in securing the conditions favorable to Swedish ethnic survival. Here we must mention the great economic and intellectual resources of the Swedish population, the effective parliamentary strategy of the Swedish People's Political Party after 1906, the continued SF control of large areas of productive agricultural land, and the land- defense organizations that bought and kept land in SF areas under SF ownership. Equally noteworthy have been the Swedish cooperatives, agri- cultural societies, banks, rural credit and insurance coMpanies, and, not least, the cultural foundations. The above indicate something of the pene- tration of ethnic or nationality sentiments into the field of econciinic ancl financial activities, efforts that have successfully provided the funds necessary to support the movement's educational Work in popular education, folk high schools, cultural activities, and in the media. Swedish-ethnic educational activities have, perhaps, contributed most directly to movement goals through their efforts to create a common ethnic identity that included both the upper class and the 'masses (Wrede, 1926). By the 1930's this key objective had been won. Educational efforts were equally successful in securing the obverse of this mutual recognition, Le., the sense of being different from Finns.: As we have noted, upper-class Swedes shared by and large attitudes of superiority over the Finns, who were largely laborers and peasants. Swedish independent peasants, in contrast, rarely came in contact with Finns of their own class. Ethnic 19 16 consciousness among this group or.ilv developed with a threat to cultural survival and a systematic educational effort to articulate this bind and teach how collective efforts might ease it (Eklund, 1914; Lille, 1921). Since World War II, the Swedish-speaking population has continued to decline in numbers iind influence. Their separtist policy has clearly served to defend ethnicity, but at the same time it has limited opportunities to gain influence at the national level. Increased contact between the two cultural groups with resettlement of Finnish refugees and post-War reconstruction, along with the increased economic power and legitimacy of Finnish nationalism, has meant increased intermarriage and the rejection of Swedish culture for a national 'identity by a relatively small but growing number of young Swede-Finns. With lack of pressure for assimilation from Finnish nationalists, the bind experienced by older Swede-Finns has lost nearly all meaning for the younger generations. And with the disappearance of culture conflict, the SFEM organizations .have been gradually transformed into service organizations that find their reason for existence in the maintenance of a new status quo. While the Swede-Finn population remains at 303,406, or a bit less than it was a century ago, the SF percentage of the total population had declined to some 6.5 percent in 1970. Recent rese.a0h indicates that this decline in the Swedish-speaking population--the loss was 17.7 'percent from 1950 to 1960 and 27.1 percent from 1960 to 1970--resulted in large part from language shift among SF youth in late adolescence and early adulthood (See Figure 5 below). It further suggests that important factors influencing language shift from Swedish to Finnish were the experiences of secondary education, labor-market entry, and the selection of a marriage partner (deVries, 1974). FIGURE FIVE Year Percent of Swedish Speakers 1610 17.5 (estimated) 1749 16.3 (estimated) 1855 14.2 1900 12.9 1970 6.5 2 0 17 As the minority of Swedish speakers declines in absolute numbers as well as in proportion to the total pupulation, the Finnish nationalists stand to gain by a policy of tolerance for ethnic pluralism and s%pport for increased bilingualism what they have been unable to gain by force in nearly a century of struggle and culture conflict. In concluslon,..the Swede-7 Finn_case might_also be viewed as an instructive example of what Bronfenbrenner (1976) calls a "transforming experiment, " or "an experiment that radically restructures the environ- ment producing a new configuration that activates previously unrealized behavioral potentialities in the subject" (p. 14). Where most anthro- pological study of ethnic education has viewed the ecological 'contexts of such efforts as sociological givens, a "transforming experiment" or social-movement approach would view ethnic relations with mobilization as subject to significant and novel transformation. Where we have in the past focused our research on the ethnicity-education nexus as.it exists with system elements that make up the status quo, we will also need to examine how educatio:t in conflict situations contributes to ethnic movement attempts to secure and defend "a restructuring of established institutional forms and values. 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