a history of international exchange
Today’s teachers aim to educate in a way that will not only serve their students well in their own countries, but will translate well internationally. This international approach is often touted as being on the cutting edge of education.
But Noah Sobe, PhD, assistant professor in the cultural and educational policy studies program in the School of Education, knows better.
After a year of doing archival research in Belgrade, Serbia, Sobe found numerous examples of Yugoslavia’s efforts during the 1920s and ‘30s to create a transnational educational identity. Declared a country in 1918, Yugoslavia bolstered its educational system by sending teachers to other countries in order to absorb and bring back the best and most forward-thinking techniques. They borrowed ideas such as organized extracurricular activities and calisthenics, as well as a focus on students’ holistic welfare, from the established teaching practices of nearby Czechoslovakia.
“This, to me, is a reminder that the global age has a history,” says Sobe, who is also associate director of the School of Education’s Center for Comparative Education. “For at least the last century, people have thought about their positions in the world and what identities and ethical responsibilities their schools need to attend to.”
Sobe’s research will be published in his book, Provincializing the Worldly Citizen: Yugoslav Student and Teacher Travel, 1918-1938, to be published in 2008 by Peter Lang. This past November, he was a keynote speaker at an international history of education conference in Guanajuato, Mexico.
APRIL SPECHT (BS ’01)