‘The right kind of education for the right individual’: comparative education studies according to the Educational Yearbook of the Teachers College (1924–1944)

Abstract

The International Institute of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, continuously published its Educational Yearbook, in a total of 21 editions, in order to ‘provide students of education sciences with the world education theories and practice’. Headed by Isaac L. Kandel, the journal followed a traditional editorial line in its first issues, which came to change and shift to new themes and methodologies during the 1930s, as social, economic and political problems spread. This journal was a specifically academic initiative, in that it fell outside the scope of governmental or international organisations. This study will focus on the content of the different issues of the Educational Yearbook. It will also reflect on the most sensitive issues concerning the interwar period and, ultimately, it will highlight the underlying goals of this publication: the defence of peace, democracy and intellectual cooperation on the subject of education and citizenship.