UNESCO is celebrating 70 years of publication of the ‘International Review of Education’ (IRE), the longest-running international journal of comparative education in the world.
UNESCO has published an interesting history timeline (Note: unfortunately the journal’s articles are for subscribers only).
“Anti-capitalist demonstrations at the end of the 1960s sparked much debate about the role of education in supporting social progress.”
“Women’s education grew in prominence as a topic across the 1970s and 1980s.”
“UNESCO’s lifelong learning perspective became increasingly marginal, as this instrumentalist turn in thinking about education took effect, and the lens through which learning was viewed became increasingly economistic. A 1998 issue focused on ‘the global trend towards the instrumentalization of education as a means of preparation for employment above all other purposes’. This was a recurrent theme over the following two decades.”
“With the world facing new challenges, from artificial intelligence to democratic backsliding and political disinformation, as well as familiar ones such as climate change, conflict and inequality, lifelong learning has never been more important.”