Abstract
The first steps toward the development of mass systems of basic education are generally believed to have occurred in the Nordic countries. For example, in Sweden, the national church, with the urging of the king, exhorted parents and communities to foster popular literacy, and the literacy rate is believed to have increased from 20% in the seventeenth century to 80% by the early nineteenth century (Johansson 1981). But, this was largely accomplished through home education stimulated by church examinations of each family’s progress; in other words, the literacy improvement was not accompanied by the development of an elaborated educational system, and partly for that reason, it did not gain as much international recognition as subsequent reforms in Germany and France. Table 1 shows that the respective year’s basic education was made compulsory in selected states.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The Ministry of Education’s (1980) Japan’s Modern Educational System provides an excellent summary of the various regulations.
- 2.
While there were relatively fewer tracks differentiated in the Soviet Russian system, at least during the early decades, the proportions of general school graduates channelled to these tracks were perhaps as large as was the case in continental Europe. In these systems, a smaller proportion went on to the academic track. In the USA, the proportion sent to the vocational-technical track was always comparatively modest.
- 3.
Mueller (1984) pp. 143 ff argues that the Prussian King William III, following Napoleon’s defeat in 1806 of the German states, intentionally favored the urban schools so as to improve the prospects for the recruitment of the urban middle classes into the Prussian civil and military services. The King felt aristocratic nepotism had weakened the quality of these services, and, moreover, he doubted the loyalty of many of the aristocrats.
- 4.
Nations that favored segmented education at home such as the UK and the USA replicated this pattern in their empires. The British set up separate schools in English for the colonial officers and in the vernacular for the “natives.” While the French and the Japanese “welcomed” everyone in the colonies to a single school system, these schools set such high linguistic (classes were only in the language of the colonial administration) and academic standards that most locals failed.
- 5.
See William K. Cummings, “Private Education in Asia” in Cummings and Altbach (1994) for an explanation for the very large private sectors in the educational systems of Eastern Asia.
References
Amano, I. (1990). Education and examination in modern Japan (trans: William K. Cummings, Fumiko Cummings). Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press.
Archer, M. (1977). Social origins of educational systems. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Bellah, R. N. (1975). The broken covenant: American civil religion in time of Trial. New York: Seabury Press.
Cummings, W. K. (1996). Private education in Asia. In W. K. Cummings & P. G. Altbach (Eds.), The Asian educational challenge: implications for America. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Cummings, W. K., & Riddell, A. (1994). Alternative policies for the finance, control and delivery of basic education. International Educational Research, 21(8), 751-776.
Cummings, W. K. (2003). The institutions of education. Oxford: Symposium Books.
Fuller, W. (1982). The old country school: the story of rural education in the Middle West. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Lamberti, M. (1989). State, society, and the elementary school in imperial Germany. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ministry of Education (MOE) (1980). Japan’s modern educational system: a history of the first hundred years. Tokyo.
Muller, D. K., Ringer, F., & Simon, B. (1987). The rise of the modern educational system: structural change and social reproduction 1870-1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
OECD (1995). Decision-making in 14 OECD education systems. Paris: The Author.
OECD (1995, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002). OECD at a glance. Paris: The Author.
Ornstein, A.C. (1988). Administrator/student ratios in large school districts. Phi Delta Kappan, 70(10), 806-808.
Ravitch, D. (1983). The troubled crusade: American education, 1945-1980. New York: Basic Books.
Reisner, E. H. (1923). Nationalism and education since 1789: a social and political history of modern education. New York: Macmillan.
Ringer, F. (1979). Education and society in modern Europe (pp. 1-31). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Ringer, F. (1974). The decline of the German mandarins. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Selden, W. (1960). Accreditation: a struggle over standards in higher education. New York: Harper & Bros.
Tyack, D. B. (1974). The one best system: a history of American urban education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cummings, W.K. (2010). How Educational Systems Form and Reform. In: Zajda, J., Geo-JaJa, M. (eds) The Politics of Education Reforms. Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3218-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3218-8_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-3217-1
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-3218-8
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)