Czech Comparative Education in the Bipolar World

Autor/in	Walterova, Eliska
Titel	Czech Comparative Education in the Bipolar World
Quelle	In: European Education, 38 (2006) 3, S.48-59 (12 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1056-4934
DOI	10.2753/EUE1056-4934380303
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Public Policy; Educational Policy; War; Social Sciences; Democracy; Comparative Education; Politics of Education; Educational History; Global Approach; Censorship; International Cooperation; Czechoslovakia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Öffentliche Ordnung; Politics of education; Bildungspolitik; Krieg; Social science; Sozialwissenschaften; Gesellschaftswissenschaften; Demokratie; Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft; Educational policy; History of education; Bildungsgeschichte; Globales Denken; Politische Zensur; Internationale Kooperation; Internationale Zusammenarbeit; Tschechoslowakei
Abstract	This article considers the influence of official government policy on Czech comparative education, by tracing changes in its ideological and geopolitical orientation, as well as attempts by the Czech education community to sustain a balance in international orientation toward notions of democracy and human progress. The period of the cold war strongly influenced the development of Czech comparative education. It not only altered the direction the field that had been developing after World War II, but afflicted it with the worst consequences of the cold war bipolarity--censorship and isolation. The forced incorporation of the country into the Eastern Bloc had a damaging impact on earlier democratic and humanistic traditions. The expectation that comparative education would become more firmly grounded as a social science was superseded by requirements of conforming to a unified ideology. The time before and during the Prague Spring of 1968 was one of hopeful expectation in Czech comparative education, particularly compared with other periods of the cold war. The intensity of international activities developed steadily. Serious contribution to the constitution of comparative education as a regular field of science was represented by interdisciplinary and internationally based projects, balanced by interest in Western and Eastern education, aimed toward a future, knowledge-based learning society. The late 1980s introduced a less repressive social and political environment, as a product of the process of liberalization in Czechoslovakia and neighboring countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The political reversal of 1989 opened the way to the revitalization of Czech comparative education. Despite serious handicaps left over from the cold war, Czech comparative education has now developed not only as an area of academic research but also as a strategic source for education policy. (Contains 1 note.) (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10