Denmark

Internationalisation of Education

Christian Ydesen and Karen Andreasen

International relations and influence spreading across national borders have always played a role in the development of education systems. Some of the key vehicles for the internationalisation of education have been the dissemination of books, articles, and via different forms of media, education programmes, exhibitions, and study trips. But the internationalisation of education has also taken place through activities and interactions in different kinds of international organisations and networks concerned with educational questions. Some good examples are the New Education Fellowship (NEF) and, later, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as well as the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). This includes the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI), and the European Union (EU).

However, the ways in which these processes have become dominant and have influenced education systems have changed over the years. It can be argued that the current mode of operation has taken on a new character that can be seen as a challenge to democracy.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s 1762 book Emile, or On Education, containing a philosophy concerned with raising children as well as pedagogy and schools, is one of the most well-known examples of a book having had a worldwide influence. Over the centuries, throughout the Western world, it has left its mark on education

Another example of international influence constitutes the Masters in Educational Psychology established in 1944 at the University of Copenhagen. Here, American literature, representing American psychology, was widely used. The understanding of children, education and child development evident here became influential in the Danish school system via newly educated psychologists, many of whom were employed in the field of school psychology, with some also publishing literature on pedagogy and schooling.

International influence has also taken shape in specific cooperative relationships between countries, via both formal and informal organisations, and in the form of cooperation around different kinds of activities with pedagogical content.

Throughout the 19th century, several schools inspired by progressive education sprouted up in Europe and the USA. These schools became a destination for study trips and thus became focal points for interactions between actors within the field of education. The pedagogical ideas put in practice in such schools spread out across the Western world.

Likewise, World Fairs came to act as focal points for various forms of exchange. They hosted exhibitors from a wide range of countries and were visited by thousands of people from all over the world.

The cooperation between international organisations is an interesting development in this context. One of the international organisations that really asserted itself in the 20th century in the education sector was the New Education Fellowship (NEF). The NEF organised annual conferences, which member countries took turns hosting. Thus, in 1929, the Danish section was responsible for the 5th Annual International Conference of the NEF, held at Kronborg Castle in Elsinore. The event was distinctive in that many of the then-internationally renowned theorists and actors in education were present and gave talks. Speakers and guests included, amongst others, Jean Piaget, Maria Montessori, Kurt Lewin, Helen Parkhurst, Alexander S. Neill, Elisabeth Rotten, Adolphe Ferrière, Ovide Decroly, Laurin Zilliacus, Beatrice Ensor, and Percy Nunn. The latter was the Head of the London Day Training College, where, from 1924 onwards, Cyril Burt was Professor of Educational Psychology. From this conference and similar ones, ideas about progressive education spread around the world, and they also had an impact in Denmark.

Some of the NEF’s figureheads were also active in establishing UNESCO in the 1940s. As is well known, education was also on UNESCO’s agenda as one of the most important themes. Education should, as it was formulated, contribute to supporting democratic society. In other words, UNESCO asserted its influence in particular by arguing for the importance of education, involving national and local experts, lending support, and by inspiring countries in various initiatives and programmes. The activities, among other things, consisted of programmes such as Fundamental Education (1946), Education for Living in a World Community (1947), and the Major Project on the Mutual Appreciation of Eastern and Western Cultural Values (1956).

A later, very influential agent in the field of education was the OECD, which was established some 15 years after UNESCO. While UNESCO’s key issues were primarily education and democracy, the OECD’s mission was to support and develop the economies of both member and non-member countries.

Among some of the instruments used by the OECD were so-called country reports and country reviews, which also included education as a theme. For this purpose, different statistical tools (indicators) were developed over time, and these should support a quantitative comparison of educational performance in many countries.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is perhaps the most well-known of the OECD’s tools. Among other things, PISA measures 15-year-old students’ skills in subjects such as reading, mathematics, and the natural sciences, but also students’ collaboration skills, and in recent years other aspects have become the subject of PISA’s measurements, such as “financial literacy”. The results from PISA surveys have had a significant influence on education systems around the world. Yet, they have also been widely criticised for different reasons. In recent years, one of the criticisms expressed relates to how PISA results influence countries’ education policy, namely: in ways that are not always democratic.

In this brief text, we have discussed a number of selected examples of how international links and connections in education have influenced education systems and the development of education, including curriculum and pedagogy. The examples show that the internationalisation of education has taken very different shapes. Today, this internationalisation occurs in different ways than previously, and it raises new challenges for politicians and decision-makers in education.

Word: Internationalisation

Number: 72