Abstract
For many historians of education, the emergence of a modern education system after the mid-nineteenth century was a national and regional process, neatly and carefully closed off within the borders of the nation. However, these accounts have often disregarded the effects of the flows of cross-border ideas and technologies, such as international comparisons, lesson-drawing, policy diffusion and travel, as well as local adaptations and translations of education policy originating elsewhere. The purpose of this article is to shed light on the relations between Swedish education and the international scene when it comes to policy and practice formation. The field of study is the international World´s Fairs of 1862–1904. Looking at what Sweden displayed, and understanding how visitors perceived it, the article raises questions concerning how exhibitions like these worked as mediators of educational ideals. The focus will be on the dissemination of aesthetic ideals, and the article will show that the World’s Fairs were platforms for an aesthetic normativity that had governing effects locally as well as globally.
Highlights
For many historians of education, the emergence of a modern education system after the mid-nineteenth century was a national and regional process, neatly and carefully closed off within the borders of the nation. These accounts have often disregarded the effects of the flows of cross-border ideas and technologies, such as international comparisons, lesson-drawing, policy diffusion and travel, as well as local adaptations and translations of education policy originating elsewhere
The purpose of this article is to shed light on the relations between Swedish education and the international scene when it comes to policy and practice formation
Looking at what Sweden displayed, and understanding how visitors perceived it, the article raises questions concerning how exhibitions like these worked as mediators of educational ideals
Summary
Abstract For many historians of education, the emergence of a modern education system after the mid-nineteenth century was a national and regional process, neatly and carefully closed off within the borders of the nation. The World’s Fairs as spaces of the future For many historians of education, the emergence of a modern education system after the mid-nineteenth century occurred as a national and regional process, neatly and carefully closed off within the borders of the nation.1 These accounts have, systematically disregarded the effects of the flows of cross-border ideas and technologies as well as local adaptations and translations of education policy originating elsewhere. They provide ideals and function as “normative social spaces.” Markets, with the exception, perhaps, of museums, are places where the things exhibited can be sold, traded or shared This was certainly the case with the World’s Fairs, but they were often about sharing skills and ‘tricks of the trade.’ without audiences looking and learning, there would not be much of an exhibition. World’s Fairs have been described as a curriculum – theyfunction as transfer points for the exchanges of educational ideas’ between the different continents.
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