New Ability Invigorated by ICT and Changing Hegemony in Bringing Up Educated Humans: A Historical Reflection

The aim of this paper is to discuss the changing ideals of ability to be educated in relation to information and communication technology (ICT) applied to tertiary educational spaces. It also examines whether such changes have marginalized students’ capabilities once they become accepted institutional practice. As a result of the development of higher learning since the Meiji restoration, Japan has achieved relatively high standards of «universities for all». Along with this expansion in higher education, Japan has institutionalized diverse learning opportunities. This paper discusses the changes that have been made to skills training in higher education, especially after the introduction of ICT into tertiary learning from the 1980s. First, the author examines the theoretical assumptions of problem setting in this paper, setting out the discussion of «the multitude». Second, there is a review of the historical transition of the concept of skills that university students should acquire. Third, the author describes to what extent the «new concept of ability» has been introduced into the university curriculum, especially in the relationship with the digital environment. Finally, to examine how the above historical background and discussions have been accepted as an effective and practical concept, the author conducted qualitative analysis of several universities’ syllabi data. Through this process, the author considered what aspects of «institutionalized value» (Illich, 1977) occur in the name of skills appropriate to the ICT/AI age. In addition, the author seeks out university attempts to create «commons» in which academic society endeavours to maintain critical and practical potential that forms the general intellect.

Building Dialogue Among Nations Through Educational and Cultural Cooperation: The Case of Burundi and the P.R. China

The aim of the present paper is to highlight the process of educational and cultural cooperative between China and African countries, particularly Burundi, the gap it came to fill and the positive outcomes it has generated. It is essentially based on a review of existing relevant documentation. African Universities were born during a period marked by rapid change as most of the countries of the continent were achieving independent nationhood. In this context, those young institutions were assigned the daunting task of contributing to national development through research activities and by producing competent manpower to help in solving the complex problems facing those societies. To this end, African states have sought to enhance the performance of their higher education systems through cooperation with China an emerging but experienced country. Hence, since the 1960s, China has been granting scholarships and other facilities to prospective African leaders and technocrats to study in different regions of the host country. Within this framework, Burundi has enjoyed cooperation assistance from the P.R. China, in economic, medical, cultural and educational matters since independence. This has helped the country to build the capacity of its education system, particularly higher education. We may conclude by saying that the offering of scholarships, the exchange of scholars, artistic performances on both sides as well as the widening Chinese language teachin programme in schools and universities through the Confucius Institute have gone a long way in promoting intercultural appreciation and understanding between the two countries. In this perspective, there is a need for highlighting the extent to which China-Burundi educational and cultural cooperation has contributed the building of mutual understanding between, the two countries.

The Beginning of History: Japanese and Chinese views of the World

The teaching of history is an important way in which the older generation, who control education systems, curricula, content choice and so on, pass on to the younger generation ideas, especially the idea of nationhood, which they hope will form the basis for future national cohesion. The younger generation, however, receive these messages and interpret then through the lens of their own experiences, experiences that they do not share with the older generation. Consequently, the idea of history is re-formed and reformulated by each generation. This paper looks at the role of textbooks, principally history textbooks, in that process. The style of textbooks is to present history as uncontentious, a descriptive account of facts and events. In practice, however, textbooks can only present an arbitrary selection from history, and a crucial decision made by educators is when to start their account – the beginning of history – as this can radically affect the interpretation of events. This facsimile of neutrality stands in sharp contrast to the professional historians’ hope that the teaching of history can develop a critical sense of important and contested events in history. The discussion is illustrated with examples of how history is presented in China and Japan, and how the conflicting accounts serve the interests of the policies adopted by the older generation, but may have unanticipated consequences for the younger generation.

Interview with Pr Bruno Poucet, Professor of sciences of education, University of Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France

Born in 1952, Professor of sciences of education at the University of Picardie Jules Verne (Amiens, France), Bruno Poucet is a French renowned historian of education in France. He has conducted and realized various researches on education (and their interactions with politics) in contemporary France. He worked on the history of education policies of the French ‘Fifth Republic’ (founded in 1958 by Charles de Gaulle) at the national level and in the Picardie region - where he lives and works. He is interested in the history of secondary and higher education, private sector of education, school secularism (called in France «laïcité») and the teaching and curriculum of philosophy. Eclectic in his areas of interest, he has also been deeply committed in the functioning of the French education system. He has been a long-time teachers’ union deputy leader at the CFDT (currently the major trade union in France). In 2011, he has created the CAREF research unit (Centre Aménois de Recherche en Éducation et en Formation, specialized in educational studies), at the University of Picardie Jules Verne.He has kindly accepted to be interviewed by Ismail Ferhat, Associate professor at the University of Picardie Jules Verne (CAREF research Unit/Teachers training school of Amiens), for the review Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, in spite of the difficult sanitary situation in France, in April 2020.

Convents as Transnational Education Spaces in the Long Nineteenth Century

This article draws on primary source materials to discuss the transnational spaces of nineteenth-century convent schools, which were founded and built by religious women (nuns). The article argues that it is necessary to study the teaching Sisters and their convent schools in order to glean insight into the transnational mobility of the teaching Sisters, and the exchange of ideas between women in education spaces. Equally, gendered readings of the convent as an education space are needed. This article attempts to contribute towards starting a discussion around the nineteenth-century convent school as a transnational female education space, which was defined and delineated by both external and internal forces.

Between and Beyond. The Course of a Life in the Realms of History of Education, General Pedagogy and Comparative Studies. Interview with Edwin Keiner

Edwin Keiner held the chair for General Pedagogy and Social Pedagogy at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano until his retirement in October 2019. From 2014 to 2017 he also served as Vice Dean of the Faculty of Education at the same university. Prior to that, he worked as a professor for the History of Education and Socialisation at the University of Bochum and as a professor for General Pedagogy at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He has studied the theory and the history of education as an academic discipline with special interest in a comparative perspective. His academic focus is on methodology, historical and comparative research on educational research, and historical, empirical and comparative as well as interdisciplinary approaches to and in educational research. For several years he took over the role as chairman of the Commission for Research on Educational Research and of the Section for General Pedagogy of the German Educational Research Association. In addition, Keiner was very active in the European Educational Research Association (EERA) for example as the first elected representative of all networks and member of the EERA Council. In 2018, Keiner succeeded in bringing the annual «European Conference on Educational Research» (ECER) with about 3,000 participants to the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy, South Tyrol. He was a member of the «International Research Community ‘Philosophy and History of The Discipline of Education’» (University Leuven, Belgium) for almost 20 years and member of the editorial boards of Paedagogica Historica, European Educational Research Journal and Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability. At present, Edwin Keiner works part-time as a senior professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany.

Going Their Own Way. Protestants’ Specific Models of Joining the Cultural Elite in 19th-century Hungary

The figures and data unanimously demonstrate that Reformed protestants were significantly overrepresented in the Hungarian cultural elite by the last third of the 19th century. Protestants, who had been under a threat of persecution throughout the 18th century and were negatively discriminated against until the mid-19th century, had developed different strategies for producing a new generation of the intellectual elite. We can distinguish three markedly different models here. Although the number of Protestants in Hungary was relatively low, they won outstanding social and cultural advancement thanks to several successful strategies and channels aiding promotion, which ran parallel but were also independent of one another. Perhaps it was the segmentation of the denominations and the power of the opportunities offered by competing alternatives that partly account for the successful process of producing a Protestant elite. However, the question remains how, and why, in all three cases isolation and going their own way could produce such significant results, and whether there are any common traits that made autonomous development so organic in all of the three cultural areas? Such a common characteristic may be a phenomenon of the Pfarrhaus, that is, the development of clerical and professorial dynasties in all three cases. The three communities all strove for endogamy, thereby accumulating, passing on and preserving private cultural and social capital through several generations. Another shared element may be participation in peregrinations, and, finally, demanding that professors to be active in publishing (as scholars, textbook writers, publicists and newspaper editors). It was these criteria and the persistent deliberateness with which they met them that allowed them to go their own way, eventually arriving at the highly significant meeting points of cultural discourse.

Los edificios escolares de primera enseñanza de Almudévar (Huesca, España) (1923-1936)

The aim of this work was to study state-funded primary schools in Almudévar (Huesca, Spain) that were planned or built during Miguel Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship and the Second Spanish Republic. Based on the documents consulted in the municipal archive and visits to the buildings themselves, it provides analysis of the commitment of the municipal corporation to addressing the needs of children regarding appropriate buildings for their schooling. This study has been carried out considering the regulations on primary education that were in force at that time, as well as the school models developed to construct school buildings with the best conditions for health and hygiene.

Why is Medieval History Controversial in Greece? Revising the Paradigm of Teaching the Byzantine Period in the New Curriculum (2018-19)

In which ways was Medieval and Byzantine History embedded in the Greek national narrative in the first life steps of the Greek state during the 19th century? In which ways has it been related to the emerging nationalism in the Balkans, and to relationships with the West and the countries of south-eastern Europe during the Balkan Wars, the First and Second World Wars, and especially the Cold War, until today? In which ways does Byzantium correlate with the notion of Greekness, and what place does it occupy in Neo-Hellenic identity and culture? Moreover, which role does it play in history teaching, and what kind of reactions does any endeavour of revision or reformation provoke? To answer the above questions I performed a comparative analysis on the following categories of sources: (a) Greek national and European historiography, (b) School history curricula and textbooks, (c) Public history sources, (d) The new History Curriculum for primary and secondary school classes, and (e) The principles and guidelines of international organizations such as the Council of Europe. In the first three sections of this paper, I provide an overview of the conformation and integration of the Byzantine period in Greek national historiography, in association with the dominant European philosophical and historical perspectives during the era of modernity, as well as the evolving national politics, foreign affairs, prevailing ideological schemas and the role of history teaching in shaping the common identity of the Neo-Hellenic society throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The fourth section briefly deals with the current situation in history teaching in Greek schools, while the fifth section critically presents the innovative elements and features of the new History Curriculum, which, to some degree, aspires to be considered a paradigm shift in the teaching of Medieval History in school education. Finally, I summarize and draw several conclusions.

Umeko Tsuda: a Pioneer in Higher Education for Women in Japan

This article explores the life and achievements of Umeko Tsuda, who played a pioneering role in higher education for women in Japan in the early twentieth century. In 1871, the Japanese government sent five girls to the United States to study. They were expected to become models for Japanese women when they returned. Six-year-old Umeko Tsuda was the youngest among them, and she remained in the United States for eleven years until she had graduated from high school. We trace her steps historically in order to highlight the experiences which drove her to work to raise women’s status in Japan. The first biography of her, by Toshikazu Yoshikawa, was reviewed by Umeko herself, and in the years since other researchers have analysed Umeko’s life from various viewpoints. Umeko’s writings, speeches, and correspondence with her American host family and friends also reveal her thoughts. As an early female returnee, Umeko developed her ideas of what schools for women should be like. With the moral and financial support of close American and Japanese friends, Umeko started her ideal school in 1900 with only ten students. This Tokyo school was the first private institution for higher education for women in Japan. Thus, Umeko’s determination to help Japanese women become more educated and happier was the foundation of Tsuda University, now offering BAs, MAs, and PhDs in a variety of programmes in Tokyo.