On the 4th annual International Day of Education, I find myself awash in some of the thorny paradoxes that mark educational development at the global level.
Until halfway through the 20th century, education was mostly a local affair. Although some reformers traveled abroad to find innovative instructional practices (including Horace Mann, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and the Qing dynasty), in most cases countries managed their own education programs and—within countries—schooling was often decentralized. It wasn’t until after World War II, when several western governments erected partnerships to ensure peace and economic stability, that multilateral institutions emerged and began articulating shared human values and administering them through educational efforts. Since then, a global architecture has ascended: one that supports countries to adopt education practices that achieve literacy, career preparedness, democratic goals such as gender equity and human rights, and—more recently—critical and creative thinking, digital competence, and environmental stewardship.
4 paradoxes of global education on International Day of Education (brookings.edu)
