Episode 72: (Living in the) State of the Art: Universal Education

Matt’s Notes

Hey there all y’all! We’ve located, mixed-and-matched, calibrated, curated and brought to the fore… this here EnT on universal education! In multiple formats, as is the custom of these here times!

Where this video has been depends your deets, pardner(s)! #ednontech

This radio works fine! It’s just recontextualized! #ednontech

So it turns out, I’m writing these notes on the first day of spring!

It wasn’t intended thus, but here we are! I could… I have… I will… say that about a lot of things lately! And indeed, you can visit my Substack, or any of my social media, for much of that!

In the true spirit of this here WordPress, and the EnT… I’ll say that given the times we’re in, I’m grateful to be in the role of English and social studies-adjacent professor at an awesome publicly-funded college in an awesome community in a really cool part of a dynamic, surprising province*

*For now! (Editor: oh come on)

Anyway, there will be a time when I catch my breath and speak in a somewhat linear, comprehensive way to the tech interventions and approaches and whatnot for the past semester and, indeed, the entire preceding academic year. At the moment, my purposes are more immediate! To wit… getting this EnT out the door before the weekend and, presumably, recording EnT 73… but… as far as timelines and the topics and so forth… that all falls squarely within Dr. Doug’s purview!

In my opinion, this episode jumps not leastly cause of Doug’s significant travel anecdotes of his significant travels to Egypt a few weeks back! It was Doug’s first time visiting the MENA region, which I called home for 6.5 years a good long time ago back in the Qatar days of my career!

Once you visit the Middle East, you’re a different person… beyond in merely obvious ways!

And so… a brief scan of the preceding confirms that indeed we have enough *premium educational content* hereabouts for me to hit publish on this for the day! Here’s hoping that the spring blasts forth with radness in all the right ways for you despite the uh… WIDESPREAD MAGA FUCKERY (Editor: this is your only warning, bruh).

Doug’s Notes

Universal Education

Universal Education – Comenius (1592-1670) & Technology

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), established in 1948

Universal education in the modern meaning of the term has been closely bound up with three great movements in social evolution.

The first of these was the Protestant Reformation. Luther and Melanchthon laid great stress upon universal literacy as a prime essential if everyone were to read and interpret the Bible for himself.

The second great force in the development of the universal school was the first Industrial Revolution. Power-driven machinery, the growth of urban populations, and the evolution of the factory system combined to make the demand for universal literacy far more compelling than were the religious sanctions of an earlier time.

The third great movement in favor of the universal school was undergoing a marked development, namely, political democracy, with its gradual extension of the suffrage and the consequent demand for an electorate of trained and informed intelligence.

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The universal school and universal literacy, however, are very recent exemplars of social progress.

Bagley, W. C. (1937). A century of the universal school.

According to the understanding of the process of education, Comenius considered that the school should be in the function of the well-being of the people, and that all knowledge and all scientific achievements belong to all people and all nations.

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With his reformist views on the process of upbringing and education, recognizing the need for egalitarianism and the development of education based on the knowledge of the characteristics of children’s development

Maksimović, J., & Sretić, S. (2019). Principle of evidence of John Amos Comenius as a basis for the development of pedagogical research techniques and instruments. Siedleckie Zeszyty Komeniologiczne seria Pedagogika, 6, 243-256.

The suggested school system following the principle of graduality had the following structure:

1. School of infancy – in each home that was blessed by children where external senses are exercised;

2. Maternal school – (general school) – found in each municipality and encourages internal senses, imagination and memory;

3. Latin school (grammar school) –in bigger towns, develops understanding and reasoning and

4. Academy – raises the will, each country has one

Lukaš, M., & Munjiza, E. (2014). Education system of John Amos Comenius and its implications in modern didactics. Život i škola: časopis za teoriju i praksu odgoja i obrazovanja, 50(1), 32-44.

While it still costs a university time and money to produce a course, technology has made reproduction and distribution costs almost non-existent. A course can be sent electronically, or placed online, and any number of students can access the material. This marked decrease in costs has significant implications and allows distance educators to play an important role in the fulfillment of the promise of the right to universal education.

Caswell, T., Henson, S., Jensen, M., & Wiley, D. (2008). Open educational resources: Enabling universal education. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 9(1), 1-11.

The universal right to education has been enshrined in a range of international rights instruments. Yet despite the considerable secondary literature on the subject, there has been little discussion of the notion of education underpinning the right.

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The unjust distribution of educational opportunities worldwide, and the perceived importance of education for national development generally, have led to sustained international attention.

McCowan, T. (2010). Reframing the universal right to education. Comparative Education, 46(4), 509-525.