Western education is the form of
education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
that mainly originated in or is characteristic of the
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and state (polity), states in Western Europe, Northern America, and Australasia; with some debate as to whether those in Eastern Europe and Latin America also const ...
.
History
Ancient era
Medieval era
Modern era
Pre-contemporary history outside of the West
The introduction of Western education into the rest of the world occurred to a large degree through
imperialism
Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...
. This affected the way that Western education was absorbed and influenced by the world.
Africa
Asia
East Asia
In China, as reformers sought to grapple with the foreign domination of the late 19th century, they came to a conclusion of re-ordering Chinese society through a process of
self-strengthening, which included taking ideas from the West.
Even before the
Edo period
The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...
, Japan had established significant contact with Western knowledge through
Rangaku
''Rangaku'' (Kyūjitai: , ), and by extension , is a body of knowledge developed by Japan through its contacts with the Dutch enclave of Dejima, which allowed Japan to keep abreast of Western technology and medicine in the period when the countr ...
(Dutch Learning). While maintaining its isolationist
sakoku
is the most common name for the isolationist foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate under which, during the Edo period (from 1603 to 1868), relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited, and almost all ...
policy, Japan permitted limited trade with the
Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( ; VOC ), commonly known as the Dutch East India Company, was a chartered company, chartered trading company and one of the first joint-stock companies in the world. Established on 20 March 1602 by the States Ge ...
at
Dejima
or Deshima, in the 17th century also called , was an artificial island off Nagasaki, Japan, that served as a trading post for the Portuguese (1570–1639) and subsequently the Dutch (1641–1858). For 220 years, it was the central con ...
, Nagasaki. This unique arrangement allowed Japanese scholars to study Western medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and other sciences through Dutch books and interactions with Dutch traders. Rangaku scholars like
Sugita Genpaku
was a Japanese physician and scholar known for his translation of '' Kaitai Shinsho'' (New Book of Anatomy) and a founder of ''Rangaku'' (Western learning) and ''Ranpō'' (Dutch style medicine) in Japan. He was one of the first Japanese scholar ...
and
Maeno Ryōtaku made groundbreaking translations of Dutch medical texts, including the influential "
Kaitai Shinsho
is a medical text translated into Japanese during the Edo period. It was written by Sugita Genpaku, and was published by Suharaya Ichibee () in 1774, the third year of An'ei. The body comprises four volumes, the illustrations, one. The conten ...
" (New Book of Anatomy), which introduced Western medical knowledge to Japan. This early exposure to Western learning through the Dutch connection laid an important foundation for Japan's later modernization efforts during the
Meiji era
The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...
, when Japan sought to further modernize itself by learning from the West. It sent scholars and diplomats to Western countries to learn from their education systems.
South Asia
The British colonised India starting in the late 18th century, and began to impose Western education by the early 19th century. They saw this as a highly positive step, and felt that it was a way to
civilise the people. Native kingdoms also sometimes sought such education to understand how to deal with the British threat.
Contemporary history outside of the West
Africa
Comparison with other educational systems
Asian education
Chinese/Eastern education has been contrasted with Western education on the basis of aiming to encourage individuals to acquire the discipline necessary to learn and therefore provide honor to their families.
Islamic education
Since the colonial era, Muslim leaders have decried Western education as failing to instill moral values, with its secular nature also seen as problematic.
See also
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English-medium education
An English-medium education system is one that uses English language, English as the primary medium of instruction—particularly where English is not the mother tongue of students.
Initially this is associated with the expansion of English from ...
*
The History of Western Education
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Western values
References
{{Western world
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