21. What Post-WWII Schoolchildren Learned about the World
- Author:
- Susan Douglass
- Publication Date:
- 09-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
- Abstract:
- A look at the role of textbooks in shaping worldviews, global literacy, and national pride. The middle of the twentieth century was a watershed period in history for many reasons, with one of the most significant being the rise of mass education systems across the world. As Britain shed its colonies, newly independent countries with influential leaders launched efforts to educate their masses—efforts that had been held back under colonial rule. India and Egypt, under Nehru and Abdel Nasser respectively, began using government schools to strive for social integration and mold their citizens’ worldviews to enlist them in national economic development and modernization. Britain, too, launched a much-needed expansion of its secondary education system and revamped its elementary schools to meet the demands of the postwar baby boom.
- Topic:
- Education, Nationalism, History, and Children
- Political Geography:
- Britain, Europe, South Asia, Middle East, India, and Egypt