The Legacy of Jullien's Work for Comparative Education

Charl Wolhuter

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367024857
• eBook ISBN: 9780429678790
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Didattica comparata

Comparative and International Education is a seemingly infinite field, and it has always tested new frontiers since it was launched as a field of scholarly enquiry 200 years ago by the vision of Marc-Antoine Jullien. The philanthropic mission which Jullien spelled out for the field remains its most noble. The contributions to this book look afresh at this mission, within the context of twenty-first century globalised society, while also highlighting and re-assessing other sources in the field. This book was originally published as a special issue of Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education.

The philanthropic mission of comparative and international education bequeathed by Jullien: continuing capstone of the field

C. C. Wolhuter

ABSTRACT
The aim of this lead article of this special issue of Compare is to assess the value of Jullie's vision for the field of comparative and international education today. The life, writings and ideas of Jullien are sketched, followed by a survey of the path of development of the field since the time of Jullien. In view of the exigencies of the early-twenty-first century, the article argues that Jullien's philanthropic vision holds up a beacon for a future trajectory of the field. This article also introduces the other contributions to this volume by using them to illustrate, to refine and to qualify this thesis.

Introduction

Comparative and international education is a burgeoning scholarly field, according to the best of indicators. For example, Easton's (2015) analysis of the annual comparative education bibliography published in the Comparative Education Review shows a constant addition to the corpus of literature in the field over the past 45 years. In such a situation, the challenge is always to find a centripetal or integrative force, and any scholarly field always has the need for an elan, or inspiring ideal. The aim of this article, which investigates the value of Jullien's vision in providing such a compass for directing the field, is threefold. Firstly, being the lead article in this special issue, the purpose of the article is to briefly portray the life and writings of Jullien and to place these in historical perspective; that is, within the historical evolution of the field since the time of Jullien. The value of the field, and how it should reposition itself in the new, global society that is taking shape, by taking its cue from Jullien, is a second objective of the article. Thirdly, this lead article will then place the rest of the articles in the volume within the framework of this recommended agenda for twenty-first century comparative and international education, drawing on Jullien.

The article proposes that Julliens contribution to the held is threefold. Firstly, the name of the field of comparative education came from Jullien. Secondly, Jullien is one of the major contributors to one of the three main epistemological strands in the field. Finally, Julliens philanthropic vision gave the comparative education scholarly community an inspiring ideal.

Marc-Antoine Jullien de Paris: life and work

Marc Antoine Jullien de Paris (born 10 March 1775, Paris; died 4 April 1848, Paris) was born into a middle-class family that was active in the politics of the day. His father was a deputy in the National Convention. Two formative influences on his life and worldview were his education and the political events of his time, in which he participated actively. He entered the College Navarre in 1785. Here his thinking was shaped by learning about various different intellectual streams: the philosophers of the Enlightenment assured him of the perfectibility of humanity, of the inner voice of conscience and of the demands of reason, and the Encyclopédistes convinced him of the need for continual progress and of the virtues of science (Gautherin 2000). He lived through the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the restoration of 1815 and the 1830 revolution. In these he took an active part. Jullien served in the Diplomatic Corps (he was sent to London by the Marquis de Condorcet) from 1792, then joined the military and then formed part of the government of Robespierre. He broke with Robespierre and, after a brief stint in journalism, went to Italy to become a scribe in the Army of Italy. Subsequently, he was part of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt (1798), but he later opposed Napoleon, for which he was imprisoned. Jullien experienced the restoration of the monarchy (1815) and spent his last years publishing political and scholarly journals.

While in the employ of Napoleon as a writer for the arrays mail service, he was sent to Italy in 1810, and passed through Yverdon in Switzerland, where he became acquainted with the education reformer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827). Jullien sent his first three sons to Pestalozzi's well known experimental institute in Yverdon. Pestalozzi is widely regarded as the starting point of modern pedagogy in that he substituted experimentation for tradition in classroom practice (Duggan 1916). Pestalozzi also contended, along with many earlier and contemporary reformers, that the purpose of education was to bring about a reformed society But unlike most of these reformers, he maintained that this could only be achieved when every individual has been properly educated. Thus he appealed for universal education, but with different motives from those of the religious reformers, who were the first people in history to appeal for universal elementary education, albeit with exclusively religious objectives (cf Duggan 1916, 134).

As can be expected from his occupation as journalist, Jullien was a prolific writer, and a long list of publications, on the politics of the day and on education, flowed from his pen. Among the education writings, Fraser (1964, 8-9) regards the following two, both published in 1810, as significant: Essai général d'éducation physique, morale et intellectuele: Suivi d'un plan d'éducation pratique pour l'enfance, l'adolesence et la jeunesse, ou Recherches sur les principes et les bases de I'education (General essay on physical, moral, and intellectual education: Following a practical plan of education for infants, adolescents, and youth, or researches on the principles and bases of education) and Essai sur I'emploi du temps, ou methode qui a pour objet de bien regler I'emploi du temps (Essay on the employment of time, or a method designed to regulate the use of time). What Jullien is best remembered for, however, at least in the field of comparative and international education, is his Esquisse et vues préliminaires d'un ouvrage sur l'éducation comparée (Plan and preliminary views for a work on comparative education). It was first published in Swiss and French literary journals in 1816-1817 and then as a pamphlet offprint in 1817.

This publication, or Plan (as it is commonly called by comparativists), of Julliens consisted of two parts. In the first part Jullien laments the state of Europe. This was a continent devastated by the sociopolitical convulsions, bloodshed and suffering brought about by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, although Jullien attributed this all to the 'moral state of Europe' (Fraser 1964, 33). Jullien saw the root cause of all this to be ignorance of the populace:

It is ignorance, forgetfulness ... degradation of hearts and minds, which have produced revolution and wars, so cruelly prolonged, of which the horrible results have successfully desolated all the countries of Europe. (Fraser 1964, 34)

Jullien saw an ameliorative answer to all this in education:

It is through the return to ... morality ... introduced in public education ... that one can reinvigorate men [sic], exercise a beneficial reaction on the coming generation ... to prevent ... new troubles and calamities appearing ceaselessly. (Fraser 1964, 34-35)

Thus, governments should be dedicated to this lofty project of public education, they should have a common goal and they should be interested in perfecting its methods by learning from each others experience in education. To facilitate this, Jullien proposed the establishment of a 'Special Commission on Education composed of members collecting data from education systems in all countries in Europe, collating and comparing such data and publishing it in a report. Series of questions on each branch of education, drawn up in advance and classified under uniform headings, would guide such an exercise of collecting data. At a time when nation states started to crystallise out in Europe, it is difficult to decide whether Jullien was advocating some kind of universal, post-national morality. Certainly the outer perimeter of his frame of reference was Europe. Two of his recommendations were for a teacher education institution and a journal of education, both of these covered a pan-European scope (cf. Fraser 1964, 22). The remit of his proposed international commission was also supra-national in scope, but this body was tasked with the collection of information only, to be put at the perusal of (assumingly) national policy makers. Similarly it is difficult to ascertain what kind of morality Jullien had in mind, though this envisioned morality seemed to be connected to the establishment of peace and the cessation of bloodshed (19). This morality he connected to the primitive nature of humans (which it could be assumed has a trans-national commonality) (34).

The second part of his publication contains exactly such a questionnaire. Jullien stated that six series of questions should be included, with the following rubrics:

• (1) primary and common education
• (2) secondary and classical education
• (3) higher and scientific education
• (4) normal education (i.e. teacher education)
• (5) education of girls
• (6) education as it is related to legislation and social institutions.

In his publication Jullien provided his lists of questions relating to rubrics 1 and 2; he set out his intention to publish his lists of questions for rubrics 3 to 6 in a later publication, an assignment that he unfortunately never completed.

Such a data bank, according to Jul lien, should also serve as the basis for a 'science' of education, which will inform policy makers or politicians in various countries (Fraser 1964, 37). It was envisaged that such an undertaking would provide a prompt and sure means for regenerating and improving public and private education (37). Finally, Jullien appealed for the establishment of a Journal of Education. It was thought that such a periodical would serve as a forum for the investigation of and comparison between institutions and systems of education and as a vehicle of communication among scholars of education.

Jullien's place in the historical evolution of comparative and international education

The prehistory of comparative and international education

Noah and Eckstein (1969) distinguish between two incipient phases in the development of comparative education, namely a phase of travellers' tales and a phase of systematic collection of data, with the intention of borrowing.

Travellers' tales

Comparison is a typically human activity It could even be argued, drawing on established learning theory such as that of Piaget, that all human knowledge is essentially comparison. It can therefore be postulated that the first human beings, on having made contact with communities, societies and cultures other than their own, started to compare their own societies, communities and cultures, including their own ways of raising children, with those of others. The oldest written account of such comparison is found in the biography that the Greek author Xenophon (c. 430-355 BC) wrote of the Persian king Cyrus. In this biography he compared the Greek and the Persian ways of raising children. Such written comparisons of educational practices have been evident in the literature ever since, and continue to occur today in, for example, newspapers and the popular media. It should be noted that, as the contributions of Sobe and Epstein in this special issue argue, narratives can and do constitute an accepted epistemological strand in the field, in addition to that of positivism; however, because of the unsystematic, biased and unverifiable (validity and reliability are not accounted for) nature of travellers' tales, they can be regarded as belonging to a phase before comparative education became a full-fledged field of scholarly enquiry.

Systematic study of foreign education systems, for the purposes of borrowing

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, a new kind of educational traveller emerged. They were mostly government officials studying education systems and educational developments in foreign countries, with the aim of borrowing best ideas, methods, insights and practices, that is, to import them to improve their own education systems back home. These developments can be understood against the backdrop to the rise of nation states in the regions of Western Europe and Northern America at the time and the establishment of national education systems of primary education in these states, as part of national projects of state and nation formation.

An obvious example of this new kind of educational traveller is Victor Cousin (1792-1867), who, at the direction of the French Ministry of Education, undertook a study tour of Prussia in 1831, and in the following year delivered a report in two parts on his findings, titled Report on the State of Public Instruction in Prussia. The fundamental law establishing the French system of primary education, the Guizot Law of 1833, was based on Cousin's report.

While they are comprehensive, these studies of foreign education systems generally do not comply with the rigours of scientific scholarship (Crossley and Jarvis 2000, 261; Noah and Eckstein 1969, 14-33). Often, on the basis of preconceived ideas, beliefs and prejudices, rather than on the basis of evidence, some systems and practices were declared better than others (Noah and Eckstein 1969, 32). Comparative education was still in its infancy. Another major problem was summary borrowing of educational practices, without taking into account the contextual differences between the two countries, namely the exporting and the importing country (Yang 2014, 295). This has often proved to be a fatal mistake insofar as the implementation of these transplanted reforms is concerned. For an example of this in South African education, the reader is referred to the publication of De Wet and Wolhuter (2009) on language policy and outcomes-based education in South Africa,

A phase of international cooperation: the impetus provided by Jullien

It was in such a state of affairs that Jullien appeared on the scene, setting the stage for comparative education to transcend from borrowing so as to improve the education system of one particular country to a more altruistic, universal ameliorative motive, namely for comparative education to serve the interests of humanity, to improve the fate of humanity and to enhance the quality of life of all human beings. Jullien also formulated a blueprint for the systematic analytical study of education systems. The origins of the field of comparative education are manifold, and the contributions of Sobe and Epstein in this issue provide a synopsis of these. However, as Sobe notes in his contribution to this issue, 1817 is the year that stands out most clearly in the history of the field.

In carrying out the assignment set by Jullien, a new phase in the historical evolution of comparative education has dawned. Noah and Eckstein refer to this third phase (following the first two phases, namely that of travellers' tales and that of the systematic study of foreign education systems, for the purposes of borrowing) as the phase of international cooperation (Noah and Eckstein 1969,34-39). Jullien had no influence in the Europe or the world of his day. But in the twentieth century, his ideals came to be realised in various different ways. These include, for instance, the establishment of international organisations (examples of which include the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement - the latter is also formally an intergovernmental organisation), international institutes of education research (such as the Institute of Education, University College London, and the Ont ario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto), professional comparative education societies, conferences and journals, and studies that are international in scope (such as the Changing Academic Profession international survey of the academic profession) (cf. Wolhuter 2014). But first the field went through a number of meanders, which will be described in the following sections.

The 'factors and forces' stage

Following the ideas set out by Michael Sadler (1875-1943) in his famous 1900 Guildford lecture titled 'How far can we learn anything of practical value from the study of foreign systems of education?', proponents of th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. The philanthropic mission of comparative and international education bequeathed by Jullien: continuing capstone of the field
• 2. Is Marc-Antoine Jullien de Paris the 'father' of comparative education?
• 3. Travelling researchers, colonial difference: comparative education in an age of exploration
• 4. The Internet as a tool for informal education: a case of Uyghur language websites
• 5. A critique of PISA and what Jullien's plan might offer
• 6. Revisiting Jullien in an era of globalisation
• 7. The making of comparability: education indicator research from Jullien de Paris to the 2030 sustainable development goals
• 8. Comparison as an approach to the experimental method
• 9. Identity as immunology: history teaching in two ethnonational borders of Europe
• 10. Forum: The rise of international large-scale assessments and rationales for participation
• Index