Who needs a United Nations school? A struggle between international officials and education specialists, New York, 1946–1949

Abstract

What are the origins of international schools? Authors in the fields of education and institutional history often point to the “need” of an invisible group of parents. This need, and the “demand” these schools claim to fulfill, haunt common discourse. From a historical and sociological viewpoint, however, these are precisely the factors that require explanation. This article draws on several archival sources to analyze competing projects and visions of the United Nations International School in New York and to thus reconstruct its origins. The analysis shows that the founders of this school were neither an established occupational group of international civil servants nor an organized group of parents. On the contrary, high-level officials mobilized around the cause of a United Nations school in their quest for other status claims. A historical sociology of international education can therefore effectively replace the myth of origins, providing a better understanding of international civil servants as a social group.