Interpreting Educational Traditions

Cathie Jo Martin 

Diverse education systems present a paradox. Northern European education systems have much higher levels of educational diversity (with strong secondary vocational programs and few national standards) but higher socioeconomic equality. Liberal education systems have more uniform (and arguably equal) secondary programs but higher levels of socioeconomic inequality. This incongruity reflects different cultural beliefs about the central role of education. Martin’s project draws on a close reading of texts and computational linguistics analyses of over 1,000 Danish and British works of fiction from 1700 to 1920 to demonstrate how authors historically portrayed education. In her lecture, she shows how historical cultural differences have contributed to lasting economic disparities between the Anglo and Nordic political economies.

Article:

• Imagine All the People: Literature, Society, and Cross-National Variation in Education Systems from MPIfG on Vimeo.