World Expansion of Mass Education, 1870-1980

TLDR

The study uses enrollment data from over 120 countries spanning 1870–1980 to test theories of mass educational expansion. Mass education systems emerged steadily before 1940, accelerated sharply after 1950, following an S‑shaped diffusion pattern, with modest national variation and a pronounced post‑WWII expansion linked to the nation‑state model.

Abstract

Newly available enrollment data for over 120 countries for the period 1870-1980 are used to examine theories of mass educational expansion. Event-history analyses indicate that mass educational systems appeared at a steady rate before the 1940s and sharply increased after 1950. Pooled panel regressions show that the expansion of mass education, once formed, followed an S-shaped diffusion pattern before 1940, continuing with added force later. Expansion is endemic in the system. National variation exists; indications of national modernization or of structural location in world society, however, have only modest effects. It seems that mass education spreads in a world organized politically as nation-states and candidate states. Rates of appearance of mass education and of expansion accelerated sharply after World War II, with the intensification of the nation-state model and the centrality of mass education in this model.