Tracing the history of humanism in international education: The role of the UNESCO Institute for Education and the International Review of Education

Abstract

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the International Review of Education (IRE), this article reflects on the history of humanistic and hermeneutic thinking in international and comparative education as expressed in the activities and publications of the UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE) and its journal. The article first traces the influences of a range of educational thinkers from different but overlapping philosophical traditions who engaged with the institute and the IRE in the post-World War II period. It then focuses on a particular line of work, lifelong learning and literacy, which was inspired by the German comparative educationist Gottfried Hausmann and also, to some extent, the Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire. The final section relates the humanistic philosophy of education to contemporary standardised and outcome-based discourses of education. It also reflects on the contemporary use of ideas with a humanistic connotation, such as social and emotional learning and mindfulness, which have reappeared in the 21st century in a truncated and marketised form.