In memory of Torsten Husén

The History of Comparative Education in Sweden

Mina O’Dowd 

The history of Comparative and International Education in Sweden is inextinguishably associated with one scholar in particular, his life, his work and his visions. As the first Director of the Institute of International Education at Stockholm University, Torsten Husén, established the foundation for Comparative Education in Sweden, a foundation that has influenced and continues to influence the field’s development in Sweden.  It seems fitting, therefore, that this brief account of the history of Comparative and International Education in Sweden focuses on the scholar who throughout the years has indelibly formed this field and several generations of Comparative Education scholars. This account will therefore be a portrait of the man: the history of the field of Comparative and International Education in Sweden as it is related here will take the form of a portrait of a scholar, such as he is known to the author and others.  

IIE became an education and training centre, at which students had the opportunity to learn first hand from many of the scholars, with whom Torsten collaborated, as large studies, such as the IEA studies were conducted at the Institute and visiting scholars were encouraged to partake in the Thursday seminars. At these seminars, which were open to the public, doctoral students and more established researchers met to discuss their work. The list of established researchers and the doctoral students who over the years have contributed to IIE’s knowledge base through their active participation in the Thursday seminars is too long to include in this brief account. Suffice it to say that the weekly Thursday seminars were an educational forum, open for all who wished to participate and, at Torsten’s insistence, were neither mandatory or provided credits for doctoral students, rather were to be viewed as an opportunity for learning about research.

Many stories have circulated over the years about Torsten. Two, which have relevance for the field itself, will be related here. Attributed to Torsten is the assessment of the field of Education as a discipline and as an art form. Torsten’s training as a psychologist, a training in which the value of empirical and verifiable results was unquestioned, influenced his view on Education as a discipline. There can be no question, on the other hand, of Torsten’s interest in art, in its many manifestations: his work and, not least, his home shows evidence of his interest and devotion to literature and visual art. At the same time, Torsten himself is a prolific scholar. His list of publications is long, providing evidence of his interest in educational reform, core values of education, education in Sweden and around the world. It is no wonder that the second story attributed to Torsten takes the form of advice which he himself so well followed, “Write another book”.

Comparative and International Education in Sweden today bears the mark of Torsten Husen’s career: it focuses on the broad issues of education as a human endeavour and achievement and its relation to politics, art and the many facets of human existence. Behind the re-establishment of NOCIES, the Nordic Comparative and International Education Society can be found persons upon whom Torsten Husén’s work and life has made a deep and lasting impression and has thereby defined the role of a Swedish Comparative educator: researcher, teacher, writer, expert, “doctorfather” and “incurable academic”.     

Reference

Härnquist, Kjell (1991) Torsten Husén –Mentor, Friend and Colleague. In Ingemar Fägerlind, Sixten Marklund & Vinayagum Chinapah (eds.) Torsten Husén. An Educator. Institute of International Education, Stockholm University: Studies in Comparative and International Educator, No.20

 I first met Torsten, as he very shortly after our first meeting asked me to call him, when in 1992 I took my first course at IIE, the Institute of International Education, located on the top floor of building F, the last in the row of light blue buildings that at that time formed the campus of Stockholm University.  At our first meeting, Torsten made a clear and deep impression upon me, an impression that did not alter over the years: this is a scholar with a broad field of knowledge and a reverence for life in its many and varied aspects. Torsten studied literature and history as an undergraduate student enrolled at Lund University, before he began his studies in psychology and education, which in the 1930s formed one academic field of study. His first publication in 1940 was in literature (Härnquist, 1991, p.10). He was promoted to full professor in 1953. This was to be the first of several professorial chairs Torsten held, becoming Sweden’s first professor in applied educational research in 1956.  The chair of Professor of International and Comparative Education was created for Torsten.  The Institute of International Education, however, was his own creation.