Jean Piaget and international education: Pedagogical practices for the construction of a method of understanding and reciprocity in children

The current paper displays the proposal of international education carried out by Jean Piaget in the middle of the 1930s. Having this in mind, we analyzed some of the author’s publications aiming at identifying his conception of an international cooperation spirit and the procedure to develop it in schools. We identified how the socio-historical context, marked by war and nationalism influenced the construction of knowledge about education and psychology. Because the author assumed the leadership of important international educational institutions concerned with the development of peace in schools, the author addresses the issue of education in a way both objective and scientific. International education would have as its main objective to foster the emergence of understanding and the placement of reciprocity before peers and foreigners. The method to be employed in schools should take advantage of the tendencies towards internal solidarity and the practice of rules of cooperation and methods of self-government.