Founders of WCCES
Late Professor Joseph Katz Founding President, WCCES (1970-74) University of British Columbia Canada |
Late Professor Joseph Lauwerys
University of London, UK |
Late Mr. Leo R. Fernig
UNESCO IBE Director, Geneva (1970-74);UNESCO Assistant Director=General Education ad Interim, Paris (1974-76); Other key roles at UNESCO, Paris (1948-70); WCCES Secretary General (1978-82) |
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Late Professor Brian Holmes Past President, WCCES (1974-77) Co-Founder, CESE Professor and Dean Faculty of Education University of London United Kingdom |
Late Dr. Masunori Hiratsuka Past President, WCCES Founding President, JCES Former Director National Institute for Educational Policy Research Japan |
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"The major impetus for the founding of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) came from a Canadian, Joseph Katz of the University of British Columbia. The first World Congress was held in Ottawa, Canada, in August 1970 during the UNESCO-designated International Education Year (IEY). Edmund King later described the way in which the idea took form (Letter to Raymond Ryba, 12 March 1998):
I was there at the time, when [Joseph] Lauwerys and Leo Fernig (often in London) and Joe Katz were laying the groundwork for the WCCES. Katz spent a year in London on sabbatical, and during that time he and Lauwerys were often together.... Lauwerys [was] the European founding partner in the nascent WCCES … [and] above all else, Lauwerys insisted that the administration and official centre of the WCCES should be housed in London. Joe Katz was, so to speak, an equal but distant partner ‘in partibus infidelium’.
Other important players included Antanas Paplauskas-Ramunas of the University of Ottawa; William Brickman, founder of the Comparative Education Society (CES) in the United States; Brian Holmes, one of the founders of the Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE); Gerald Read of Kent State University in the United States; Masunori Hiratsuka, founder of the Japan Comparative Education Society (JCES); and Leo Fernig from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), who gave considerable support and assistance to the idea (Maseman & Epstein on Page 13 in
Common Interests, Uncommon Goals, edited by Maseman, Bray & Manzon, 2007 - please see details below)."
The WCCES serves as an umbrella organization comprised of comparative education societies from across the globe and is an NGO in official consultative partnership with UNESCO. Beginning with only five comparative education society members in 1970, the Council has today grown to 41 constituent member societies. Most members are national comparative education societies, but some are organized around global regions (for example, Oceania Comparative and International Education Society and Indian Ocean Comparative Education Society) and languages (e.g. Association Francophone d'Éducation Comparée).
The Council has retained its original organizational structure and overall purpose since it was first organized. The WCCES leadership is comprised of the Bureau composed by the President who serves as its Chair, the Secretary-General, the Treasurer, two Vice Presidents and a Member-at-Large. Member societies have single representation on the WCCES Executive Committee, which typically meets face-to-face at a location at least once a year. Former WCCES Presidents and scholars of exceptional contributions to the field of comparative education are nominated as co-opted members of the Executive Committee. Additional leadership roles have been formed over the years, including the organization of standing committees around various themes related to specific Council-sponsored projects and activities which, as of 2017, are: Admissions & New Societies, Congress, Constitutional, Finance, Professional Ethics, Publications, Research, Special Projects, and UNESCO Liaison. The President commissions various task forces and teams for specific time-bound objectives to be achieved. As of 2017, they are: Election Task Force, Journal-Chronicle Task Force, and Peace Education Task Force. Similarly, the History Team is charged with the responsibility of archiving the historical records of the Council. A WCCES historical archive was established and originally housed by Kent State University until 2014, when the WCCES Archive was transferred to the University of Pittsburgh, and is now being housed at the University of Memphis.
The Secretariat of the Council has been at the same location as where the Secretary-General resided. The first Secretariat was housed at the University of Ottawa, Canada, and afterwards at different locations, including the UNESCO International Bureau of Education in Geneva, Switzerland, Institute of Education at the University College London, UK, and Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong. Currently, the WCCES Secretariat is located at Beijing Normal University, P.R. China.
The WCCES headquarters is at Cornell University (Ithaca, New York, USA), where the current President is a Professor.
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For ordering hard copies of the book, please click on the link below: Book: Common Interests, Uncommon Goals - Histories of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies and its Members, edited by Masemann, Bray and Manzon, 2007 |
