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Education International (EI-IE) is a global union federation of teachers' trade unions, which is based in Brussels, Belgium. Currently, it has 401 member organizations in 172 countries and territories, representing over 30 million education personnel from pre-school to university. This makes it the world's largest sectoral global union federation. ==History== Prior to the 1950s, teacher and other education unions played little role in international trade union federations. In 1912, the International Committee of National Federations of Teachers in Public Secondary Schools was established in Belgium. Internationally, it was known as FIPESO, an acronym derived from its French name: The Federation Internationale des Professeurs de l'Enseignement Secondaire Officiel. In 1923, the National Education Association (NEA) founded the World Federation of Education Associations (WFEA) in San Francisco. Then in 1926, the International Federation of Teachers' Associations (IFTA) was formed. The same year, the International Trade Secretariat of Teachers (ITST), a grouping of teachers' unions affiliated with the International Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU), was established. But few of these organizations obtained membership of any size, joined the International Labor Organization (ILO), or proved influential. Many were international in name only, with membership usually coming from a few European nations. Except for the WFEA (which was dominated by the NEA), most ceased to function during World War II.〔Towsley, ''The Story of the UNESCO/ILO 1966 Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers,'' 1991.〕 A significant reorganization of the international trade union movement occurred in the wake of the second world war. The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) was founded in October 1945 to bring together trade unions across the world in a single international organization. But a number of conservative Western labor federations, notably the American Federation of Labor (AFL), felt that trade unions from Communist countries were government-dominated. Their inclusion, it was feared, would lead to domination of the WFTU by the Soviet Union. In 1949, the AFL and other trade unions formed the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), an international organization which rejected communist or communist-led trade unions. International education trade centers also underwent a reorganization. The WFEA broadened its membership and was renamed the World Organization of the Teaching Profession (WOTP) in 1946. The same year, the ITST affiliated with the WFTU. But the split over communism in the WFTU affected the international education secretariats as well. In 1948, several socialist and communist teachers' unions formed the World Federation of Teachers Unions (known as FISE from its French title, Fédération Internationale Syndicale de l'Enseignement) in Budapest. Most non-communist national teachers' unions refused to join FISE. IFTA, FIPESO and FISE formed a liaison group, the Joint Committee of International Teachers' Federations, the same year. But the American-dominated WOTP refused to join. In 1951, following the split in the WFTU and the creation of the anti-communist ICFTU, two new international education secretariats were created. WOTP, FIPESO and the IFTA formed the World Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching Profession (WCOTP). The AFL (primary backer of the ICFTU) and its teacher union (the American Federation of Teachers) pushed the ICFTU to form its own international secretariat to compete with the much more liberal WCOTP. The conservative and determinedly anti-communist International Federation of Free Teachers' Unions (IFFTU) was created the same year as the WCOTP. FISE, meanwhile, affiliated with the WFTU.〔〔Docherty, ''Historical Dictionary of Organized Labor,'' 2004.〕〔Guthrie, ''Encyclopedia of Education,'' 2002.〕 The IFFTU remained the much smaller organization until the mid-1970s. Although both the WCOTP and IFFTU gained members through the next 25 years, by 1976 the IFFTU represented unions with only 2.3 million members while the WCOTP represented unions with more than 20 million members.〔''Quadrenniel Reports...: Addendum,'' Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, United Nations, March 20–31, 1995.〕 The WCOTP worked closely with the United Nations, UNESCO and the ILO to study the problems of teachers throughout the world, and focused much of its attention on Africa and Asia. For the first 15 years of its existence, the WCOTP worked heavily on a draft UNESCO instrument which would create a consensus on the status, salaries, and protections teachers should have. The final document, "Recommendation Concerning the Status of Teachers," was adopted by UNESCO on October 5, 1966.〔 The IFFTU and WCOTP remained strong rivals, each organization's policies and actions often reflecting the rivalry between the NEA and AFT (which were their respective secretariat's largest members). But the surge in growth in AFT membership in the 1960s and 1970s significantly improved the membership figures of the IFFTU. A turn away from radical political views by a number of European, African and Asian education unions led a number of national organizations to disaffiliate from the WCOTP and join the IFFTU.〔〔〔〔Rütters, "International Trade Secretariats – Origins, Development, Activities," ''International Trade Union Organisations,'' no date.〕 On January 26, 1993, the WCOTP and IFFTU merged at a convention in Stockholm to form Education International. The stronger membership of the IFFTU at WCOTP expense led both organizations to see merger as a resolution to continuing conflict and competition, and merger was strongly advocated by AFT president Albert Shanker. The collapse of Soviet bloc communist also helped to remove lingering political differences between the two groups (as well as the reason for the IFFTU's existence). Merger was first proposed in 1985, talks became serious in 1988, and merger achieved five years later. Shanker was elected EI's founding president.〔"Albert Shanker, 1928-1997," ''American Teacher,'' April 1997.〕〔Osava, "Teachers of the World - United and Underpaid," ''Inter Press Service,'' July 26, 2004.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Education International」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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