Workers' Faculties in the Developing World

"Worker’s Faculties" were widespread in the Soviet Union until 1941. They had two main goals--preparing adult workers and peasants for university entrance through the provision of general education and creating a new socialist intelligentsia from among these groups. At the conclusion of World War II similar Faculties were established in countries across post-colonial Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Based on case studies in Vietnam, Cuba, and Mozambique, authors Tim Kaiser, Tobias Kriele, Ingrid Miethe, and Alexandra Piepiorka of the University of Giessen argue that corresponding transfer processes were largely driven by local actors in the respective countries and that these institutions were regarded as suitable instruments in solving problems particular to postcolonial contexts. If you would like to read this entire paper, "Educational Transfers in Postcolonial Contexts: Preliminary Results From Comparative Research on Workers’ Faculties in Vietnam, Cuba, and Mozambique," or any other content from our journal, you can find out more about subscriptions at this page.

Exporting Soviet Ideas Through Education

Our most recent edition of European Education: Issues and Studies was a special, guest-edited issue titled "Governing Educational Spaces: Historical Perspectives." In this issue, Tom G. Griffiths and Euridice Charon Cardona of the University of Newcastle in Australia have provided a helpful historical look at the Soviet university aid program during the Cold War. The paper explores the topic from a world-systems perspective. Griffiths and Cardona highlight the intended catch-up style modernization and national economic development for countries through their participation in the Soviet university aid program as well as the intended development of the human capital of participant countries. The Soviet university aid program was in place from 1956 to 1991 and it was one of history’s largest and most ambitious attempts to achieve global influence and to reshape the world through university education. Their look at Soviet soft power draws on existing research and Soviet archival materials. Specifically, they explore the program's focus on students from “developing” and newly-independent countries, and its ambition to form graduates who would return home to become national leaders sympathetic to Soviet socialism. If you would like to read this entire paper, "Education for Social Transformation: Soviet University Education Aid in the Cold War Capitalist World-System," or any other content from our journal, you can find out more about subscriptions at this page.

Table of Contents Volume 47 Number 3 (Fall 2015)

Governing Educational Spaces: Historical Perspectives

EDITORIAL: Global Governance in Education: A Plea for an Agenda of Shape-Shifts
Eleftherios Klerides & Hans-Georg Kotthoff
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1083322

Governing by Testing: Circulation, Psychometric Knowledge, Experts and the “Alliance for Progress” in Latin America During the 1960s and 1970s
Cristina Alarcón
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1065396

The Idea of the Visiting Inquiry in Comparative Education: The 1903 Mosely Commission and the United States
Martin Lawn
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1065395

Education for Social Transformation: Soviet University Education Aid in the Cold War Capitalist World-System
Tom G. Griffiths & Euridice Charon Cardona
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1065390

Educational Transfers in Postcolonial Contexts: Preliminary Results From Comparative Research on Workers’ Faculties in Vietnam, Cuba, and Mozambique
Tim Kaiser, Tobias Kriele, Ingrid Miethe & Alexandra Piepiorka
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1065394

Transnational Governances in Higher Education: New Universities, Rhetorics, and Networks in Postwar Singapore
Grace Ai-Ling Chou
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1065391

Routes of Knowledge: Toward a Methodological Framework for Tracing the Historical Impact of International Organizations
Ivan Lind Christensen & Christian Ydesen
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1065392

BOOK REVIEWS
National Identity and Educational Reform: Contested Classrooms by Elizabeth Anderson Worden
Steven D. Roper
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1065397

School’s Out: Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten by Lisa Molomot & Rona Richter
Beth Powers-Costello
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1033229