Miguel A. Pereyra, “United States Comparative Education: The Changing Nature Given to Society and Nations in the Challenges of the Cold War”

The lecture focuses on the “scientific domains” and “social spaces” of academic disciplines through the study of US Comparative Education. Developed at initially in Teachers College, Columbia University in 1898, it was to promote the social efficiency movement of the curriculum. Later and continuing after World War II, the intellectual orientation shifted, first, to the history of education and the cultural-humanistic tradition, and then, to more social science approaches. Focusing on post-World War Two, the paper examines the changes in “the nature” given to society and nations in the theories and methods of the comparative studies as the classical historical-humanistic visions lost academic relevance in order to address emerging international issues linked to social policy and development and planning.