Rise and decline of education systems: a contribution to the history of the modern state

Abstract

If by ‘education systems’ we understand institutional units, constituted by common legal provisions, organizational structures, curricular goals and value foundations, the current period signals their decline. This indicates the decline of the modern nation state, which has characterized the political map of Europe for 300 years and gradually expanded to the other continents. Therefore education systems in their ‘state‐bound’ constitution must be identified as a category of ‘organized space’ within a given historical period—and not as a perpetual phenomenon. This understanding of the current ‘education system’ points the way to the concept of ‘educational spaces’ in periods preceding the modern nation state. It helps to identify the current stages of transition, indicated by the emergence of regional ‘educational spaces’, the expansion of private sectors, and the invasion of the globalizing markets into the ‘knowledge society’.