The understanding of transformative education in this article is based on the principles and practice of global learning. Globalization is understood as a transformative process creating challenges for society, human beings and education. Global learning, framed within sustainability and justice, is understood as a way of handling the…

European educational knowledge and practices have been deeply impacted by the colonial experience. While hegemonic knowledge was exported to the colonies, practices of teaching and governing colonial subjects were tested in the periphery and then reimported to the center. This contribution looks at a case of European education outside Europe that…

This article sketches a post-Occidental interpretation of the historical/conceptual relationships between modern western education and European civilizational identity formation. Modern western education will be interpreted as a modern/colonial institution that emerged along with the sixteenth-century responses to the questions provoked by the…

In this article, I propose that the west/non-west dualism sets limits on our thinking about internationalisation of the curriculum. While this dualism and that of the west/the rest offer some heuristic capacity to surface issues of imperial power and hegemonic grip, I suggest that it has congealed into a grand narrative that inhibits our…

The simplest and most widely held definition of Social Darwinism is the application of concepts of biological evolution to social and moral development. More specifically, it is social evolution through "survival of the fittest" in a "struggle for existence" in which the strong prevail and the weak are defeated and disappear.…

Western historians working in the first half of the twentieth century established a scheme for writing design history that continues to influence the global histories of today. The historians Douglas McMurtrie, Lucien Febvre, Henri-Jean Martin and Lawrence Wroth believed that the modern history of visual communication began with the advent and…

In 1792 more than 350,000 people in Britain signed a petition calling for an end to the slave trade. It was, writes historian Adam Hochschild in his book "Bury the Chains," "the first time in history that a large number of people became outraged, and stayed outraged for many years, over someone else's rights". In 1807--after 15…

Examines data collected for a book on human accomplishment to investigate whether Western accomplishments in the arts and sciences has been too much at center stage. Data include inventories of people and events assembled from major histories and encyclopedic sources, covering the period from 800 BC to 1950. Concludes that since 1400, Europe has…

The author provides a dramatic account of a historical incident--the last cruise of the Pontificial--Navy which was found as an indirect result of educational research. (JR)

Over a decade ago the newsletter of the American Historical Association "Perspectives" carried a long lead article entitled "Teaching 'Eastern Europe' without the Iron Curtain." Referring to the challenge posed by the revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe to the teaching of European history, the author, Larry Wolff, saw it as…

During the post war years the League of Nations Union Movement in Britain worked through the schools and converted pro-league sentiment into specific government policies. The history classroom was the focal point of the L.N.U.'s educational effort so that new generations would grow up ready to support enlightened foreign policies and the work of…

Discusses opposing tendencies in the interpretation of Western Civilization. Describes the expanded definition that includes Byzantine and Islamic cultures as heirs of the Greco-Roman cultures. Suggests that a limited definition of Western culture will facilitate a problems approach, emphasize diversity among cultures, and integrate the classical…

Discusses how the concept of the west developed, circumstances leading to western civilization courses, and how the western European self-conception was received in America around the turn of the century and embodied in high school and college curricula. Limiting studies to the west excludes the rest of humanity. Suggests that situating the west…

Evaluates six U.S. western civilization textbooks' treatment of the Baltic region. Reports that the books devote little or no attention to the region, emphasize larger nations, and ignore Baltic social history. Suggests that social histories may continue to neglect small countries, whereas reaction against "Eurocentrism" may result in…

Discusses the problems of Sephardic Jews, before and after their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Explains that, although some converted to Christianity, they remained targets of discrimination in Spain. Explores the Sephardic influence upon other Jewish communities across the Mediterranean. Describes the Sephardic role in Columbus' voyages. (SG)