Creating world citizens? League of Nations teaching in English schools, 1919-1939
03 November 2011
17:30 , Senate House, S262, 2nd Floor South Block
Dr Susannah Wright (Oxford Brookes University)
The League of Nations Union was established just as the First World War was ending in November 1918, in order to promote the newly founded League of Nations among the British public. Attention was soon focused on schools and an Education Committee was formed at the end of 1919. For the next twenty years, the LNU sought to promote what contemporaries called "League of Nations teaching" in the country's schools.
The teaching's mains aims were to impart knowledge about the League, and, more broadly, to instill international knowledge and understanding. Lessons within the school curriculum and extra-curricular activities were employed to this end. My paper will examine in some detail the intentions behind League of Nations teaching, the content of lessons and extra-curricular activities, and the pedagogical debates of the time.
The seminar will consider how successful proponents were in their aim of creating international citizens of the pupils in English schools.
For further information please contact Professor Gary McCulloch, IOE : g.mcculloch@ioe.ac.uk