UNESCO and the Associated Schools Project: Symbolic Affirmation of World Community, International Understanding, and Human Rights

Abstract

The UNESCO Associated Schools Project emphasizes world community, human rights, and international understanding. This article investigates the emergence and global diffusion of the project from 1953 to 2001, estimating the influence of national, regional, and world characteristics on the likelihood of a country adopting a UNESCO school. It also addresses the effects of national linkages to the international human rights regime. The results reveal that adoption rates are positively influenced by stronger national links to the human rights regime throughout the period and that various measures of the density of global society influence adoption, particularly after the institutionalization of human rights. Finally, the results demonstrate that democratic countries and nations with more expanded educational systems tend to adopt a UNESCO school before the period of human rights institutionalization. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the literature on the global environment and the diffusion of innovations in education.

Global linkages, the higher education pipeline, and national contexts: The worldwide growth of women faculty, 1970–2012

“…One explanation for the widespread growth of women in higher education enrollments is that the goal of gender equality in higher education has emerged as a global model of progress and justice (Bradley and Ramirez, 1996). As countries become more economically, politically, and culturally interlinked to these global norms over time, they are more likely to align with gender equitable policies and practices (Meyer et al, 1997; Nakagawa and Wotipka, 2016; Suárez et al, 2009; Wotipka and Ramirez, 2008a), which may lead to greater higher education enrollments among those who were previously underrepresented.…”

“…Furthermore, democratization processes play important roles in that women gain significant opportunities to push for change and carve out their places in the political system during times of political flux (Chowdhury et al, 1994). As democracies fundamentally demand legal protections of individual, civil, and political liberties (Molyneux and Razavi, 2005; Suárez et al, 2009), countries undergoing democratization are more likely to adopt and promote greater opportunities for women, notably in the public sphere (Fallon et al, 2012), which may lead to new educational and occupational opportunities. Thus, we hypothesize that a country’s level of democratization is positively associated with its percentage of women faculty (H 9 ).…”

The Institutionalization of Global Citizenship Education as a Global Policy Agenda

“…비정부기구들의 활동 (구정우, 2007;구정우, 이수빈, 2017;Boli & Thomas, 1999;Cha, Ham, & Yang, 2017;Meyer et al, 1997;Suárez, Ramirez, & Koo, 2009), 인터넷 보급률 (Cha, Ham, & Yang, 2017;Koster, 2007) 차윤경, 2001a;차윤경, 함승환, 2005;Cha, Ham, & Yang, 2017;Meyer et al, , 1997Ramirez & Boli, 1987a;Schafer, 1999)…”

Sociology of international education – an emerging field of research

“…The UWC's goal is to provide an internationally minded curriculum in the 10 UWCs in different parts of the globe and offer scholarships to students mainly from developing countries. More recently, Suárez, Ramirez, and Koo (2009) have studied the emergence and global diffusion of the UNESCO Associated Schools Project from 1953 to 2001. The authors explored the likelihood of a country adopting a UNESCO school which emphasises world community, human rights and international understanding.…”