AMERICAN EDUCATION ABROAD

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was an "international agency for education to promote understanding and cooperation among the peoples of the world as a guarantee of peace." Aside from peacekeeping initiatives and its efforts to prevent the bombing of university cities such as Oxford and Heidelberg, it also aided, through U.S. military occupation, governments in the postwar recovery of schools in Japan, Germany, and their allies. The aim of UNESCO was to restructure the educational foundations of toppled governments so as to facilitate the rebuilding process. The constitution of UNESCO was adopted in November 1945 by representatives of forty-four countries who met in London. In 1946 the organization became a standing agency of the United Nations. UNESCO provided funds for renovation to 362 libraries destroyed in the war. It also funded the reconstruction of four Belgian museums; the rebuilding of 1,326 churches in Yugoslavia; and the restructuring of 1,500 schools in France. One of the aims of UNESCO was the disestablishment of Shintoism in Japan and the denazification of Germany. With this aim the army employed under the Marshall Plan many scientists, educators, and students with the primary goal of teaching world peace. Toward this goal of global harmony UNESCO sought to promote the arts throughout the world and to ease racial tensions, encourage human rights, stimulate democracy, preserve the earth's natural resources, and encourage research designed to better human living conditions in all countries. However, most UNESCO peacekeeping efforts were abandoned by 1947 with the rise of the Cold War.

The Fulbright Act

Following the war, the international implications of American national decisions and attitudes became more apparent. In August 1946 Congress passed Public Law 584, initiated by Sen. James W. Fulbright of Arkansas, a former Rhodes Scholar and president of the University of Arkansas from 1939 to 1941. The Fulbright Act, as the law became known, sent American students and scholars to study and teach overseas with all of their expenses paid. This program encouraged interaction among countries and proved so successful that it is still in operation half a century later.

Sources:

James Bowen, A History of Western Education, volume 3 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981);

W. F. Connell, A History of Education in the Twentieth Century World (New York: Teachers College Press, 1980).