Book review

in H-Soz-Kult: Kommunikation und Fachinformation für die Geschichtswissenschaften (2014)

The Beginnings of Modern Education in Korea, 1883-1910

in Paedagogica Historica (2014), 50(3), 265-284

Korea opened up to foreign intercourse in 1876, when the country concluded its first international treaty with Japan. Similar treaties with European and American nations followed during the 1880s. The ... [more ▼]

Korea opened up to foreign intercourse in 1876, when the country concluded its first international treaty with Japan. Similar treaties with European and American nations followed during the 1880s. The period until 1910, when Korea was annexed to the Japanese Empire, saw manifold attempts to reform as well as resistance to these reforms. Against the background of research on the world institutionalisation of education, this contribution analyses the changes that the opening of Korea entailed in the field of education, especially focusing on newly established forms of education. First, modern education was characterised by newly created institutions and curricula. These institutions can be classified according to the actors engaged in their creation, private Korean citizens, foreign missionary actors and the Korean government. Second, new educational discourses and practices characterised modern education in Korea. These new discourses played a central role in negotiating Korean nationalism and in culturally positioning Korea between China and the “West”. Bodily practices were radically changed through uniforms, new hairstyles and military drills. A new system of classroom interaction was introduced to Korea. [less ▲]

Izabela Bādo no Nihon, Chōsen, Chūgoku kikō

in Fukui, Norihiko; Itō, Mamiko; Muramatsu, Kōichi (Eds.) Sekai no shūshū - Ajia wo meguru hakubutsukan, hakurankai, kaigairyokō (2014)

Water and Dust: Recovering Washed-Out Pasts of Industry in Luxembourg

in Burke, Catherine; Grosvenor, Ian; Haenggeli-Jenni, Béatrice (Eds.) et al Education across Europe: A Visual Conversation (2014)

Conference report: ‘Gyoyuk-gwa gwonnyeok: yeoksahakjeok sigak-deul’ – ISCHE 35, 2013 (Riga) chamgi bogo

in Hanguk gyoyuksahak (2013), 35(3), 143-154

The British Lady Traveller Isabella Bird in East Asia: A Theorist of Globalization?

in Homo migrans (2013), 8

This paper sheds new light on the British lady traveller Isabella Bird’s (1831-1904) trips to East Asia. Bird visited Japan in 1878. Subsequently she came to Korea, China and far eastern Russia in the mid ... [more ▼]

This paper sheds new light on the British lady traveller Isabella Bird’s (1831-1904) trips to East Asia. Bird visited Japan in 1878. Subsequently she came to Korea, China and far eastern Russia in the mid-1890s. It is argued that her publications provide a unique perspective on globalization in the late nineteenth century. Bird observed how the East Asian societies were subject to major transformations as a consequence of their integration into the system of global capitalism. Contrary to other contemporary authors, however, Bird pointed out that imperialism was not the driving force of change. Instead, she saw the East Asian societies themselves engaged in efforts of transformation through the active importation of foreign knowledge. Bird’s approach of understanding global change is then compared to the German historian Karl Lamprecht (1856-1915) who argued that the capacity to learn from abroad would be decisive throughout the twentieth century. The article then introduces the concept of cultural transfers which has been developed in a Franco-German context since the 1980s and which provides a methodological tool to empirically analyse transnational learning processes. Bird, Lamprecht and the historian who study cultural transfers have in common that their explanatory models focus on the agency of the receiving context. [less ▲]

Appropriation, Representation and Cooperation as Transnational Practices: The Example of Ferdinand Buisson

in Löhr, Isabella; Wenzlhuemer, Roland (Eds.) The Nation State and Beyond: Governing Globalization Processes in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century (2013)

This contribution focuses on the transnational activities of the French intellectual and education expert Ferdinand Buisson (1841–1932). The liberal Protestant Buisson played a crucial role in ... [more ▼]

This contribution focuses on the transnational activities of the French intellectual and education expert Ferdinand Buisson (1841–1932). The liberal Protestant Buisson played a crucial role in implementing republican educational reforms during the last decades of the nineteenth century. Investigating his motivations for crossing borders and contacting his peers in foreign countries, this contribution distinguishes three transnational practices. Firstly, Buisson “went transnational” in order to learn from abroad. Secondly, once his institutionalisation efforts showed a certain maturity, he proudly presented his achievements neatly packaged in a nationalist discourse. Thirdly, Buisson called for common international effort projects. It is suggested that these practices of appropriation, representation, and cooperation provide a general tool for analysing the activities of expert actors on the international scene in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. [less ▲]

‘Germania facile princeps’? – Das deutsche Bildungswesen und die Weltausstellungen des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts

in Dogil yeongu - Korean Journal of German Studies (2012), 23

This contribution discusses German education at world exhibitions during the second half of the nineteenth century. All great international exhibitions of that period comprised sections that were ... [more ▼]

This contribution discusses German education at world exhibitions during the second half of the nineteenth century. All great international exhibitions of that period comprised sections that were specifically dedicated to education where the participating nations presented their educational institutions, from kindergartens and primary schools to universities and science. In this way, world exhibitions brought together education experts from all over the world. They were one of the foremost vehicles for the transnational circulation of educational knowledge. This contribution analyses with which motivations German education experts frequented world exhibitions. It is argued that education experts frequented these exhibitions for three reasons. Firstly, they wanted to show the alleged superiority of German education. This took place in a context of competition between imperial societies, as the French historian Christophe Charle has suggested. The German educational exhibits of the mid-nineteenth century stressed the high standing of primary schools in the German states. At the turn of the century, the emphasis shifted to higher education when organisers staged German universities as the original and therefore superior incarnation of universities. Secondly, German education experts participated in world exhibitions in order to initiate projects of international cooperation. Their goal was to establish Germany as a central node in international academic networks and, in this way, to strengthen the position of German academia in the world. Madeleine Herren’s concept of governmental internationalism allows to adequately analyse this option. Thirdly, German education experts frequented world exhibitions in order to learn from abroad. Foreign knowledge that educators got in contact with at the exhibitions contributed to institutionalisation processes in Germany. The concept of cultural transfers provides the best tool to describe these appropriations. German education experts who used the exhibitions in this way usually made claims for a stronger emphasis on technical and practical elements in education. It is suggested that these three transnational practices of representation, cooperation and appropriation offer a general pattern to analyse the activities of expert actors when crossing the boundaries of their own nation during the phase of globalisation that was the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. [less ▲]

Book review

in Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft (2012), 60(9), 757-759

Book review

in H-Soz-Kult: Kommunikation und Fachinformation für die Geschichtswissenschaften (2011)