The CIA archives and the History of Education
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The document discusses the CIA archives database and what it can reveal about the history of education. It introduces the CIA online reading room, which contains declassified documents from 1966 onward under the Freedom of Information Act. The sources in the archives related to education have largely been interpreted in the context of the Cold War and CIA covert actions. However, the document argues they could provide new insights into comparative education studies if analyzed from the viewpoint of what educational issues the CIA saw as important to record, rather than just as instruments of political influence. Closer examination of the documents is needed to understand what they can teach about different education systems during the Cold War era.
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The CIA archives and the History of Education
- 1. The CIA Archives and the History of Education Lajos Somogyv叩ri PhD University of Pannonia Teacher Training Center Veszpr辿m, Hungary somogyvari.lajos@mftk.uni-pannon.hu www.uni-pannon.hu Educational Research in the Digital Era ECER 2019, Hamburg
- 2. Overview Introducing the database https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/ Legal and historical background Special nature of the sources What do we know? Formal issues Looking closer: reading a document Conclusions References
- 3. Introducing the database A good opportunity to think about digital humanities (scope and limits) More questions than answers
- 4. Legal and historical background I. The releasing process Freedom of Information Act, 1966 Privacy Act, 1974 Executive Order 13526, 1995 CREST: 25-Year Program 2006 as the first deadline Classification and declassification The Electronic Reading Room period between releasing and creating CIA-RDP87B01034R000200070055-7 CIA-RDP82-00457R002500520006-5
- 5. Legal and historical background II. CIA and the History of Education The historiography of this topic Dominant approach: - Secret covert actions: intervention into students life and organisations in the higher education - Political intentions in the Cold War: expanding the American influence (e. g. Prados 2006, Zwerling 2011, Paget 2015; Sheridan, 2016) - Revisionist and post-revisionist view: A dark history, and unveiling tendency My proposal: - Focusing on the corpus: what can we learn from these reports? - Texts and interpretations for the History of Education - Geopolitical and strategical analyses educational issues. New dimensions to the comparative studies
- 6. Special nature of the sources I. Anonymity Who speaks? Who made, comment and evaluate these reports? Origins of the information Questions about the political dimension and privacy Importance and relevance Every information included, without hierarchy Priority and fragmentation, reflexivity Questions about the selection process from different perspectives Using the sources Individual interpretations, related to the data collecting Individual choices and ways to discover Questions about reliability
- 7. Special nature of the sources II. Different connections, patterns, orders and an always growing network Internet Epistemology (Choo, 2016) One way direction: direction of the data making is orientated and controlled by the Agency Limitations and exemptions Organized Chaos (Raymond & Smith, 2014) Governing the Internet and the common good of accessing (public interest) Actors and functions (e.g. state, policy-makers)
- 8. What do we know? The headline: absences, codes and warnings CIA-RDP82-00457R002500520006-5
- 9. Looking closer: reading a document The main text CIA-RDP82-00457R002500520006-5 The main questions: Which features of East German-education were worth to record and register in the viewpoint of the CIA? Why? How this information could be used in the Cold War?
- 10. Conclusions So far, the sources of state securities, secret services and intelligence have been utilized mainly in political - diplomatic dimension, interpreted them in the context of the Cold War, ignoring the educational aspects of the records. An unknown field in the History of Education, waiting to explore New aspects and elements from a different viewpoint Limitations: - Who? - Why? - From which sources? - How?
- 11. References Primary sources: CIA-RDP87B01034R000200070055-7. Classification Guide. CIA-RDP82-00457R002500520006-5. Soviet Control of Education in Land Saxony. CREST:25-Year Program Archive. Retrieved: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/collection/crest-25-year-program- archive Declassification Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved: https://www.justice.gov/open/declassification/declassification- faq Information Security Oversight Office (2012/2). Retrieved: https://www.archives.gov/files/isoo/notices/notice-2012-02.pdf Users Manual for the CIA Records Search Tool (2003). Retrieved: https://fas.org/irp/cia/product/user-2003.pdf What is the Electronic Reading Room. Retrieved: https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/what-electronic-reading-room Secondary sources: Choo, Chun Wei (2016). The Inquiring Organization: How Organizations Acquire Knowledge and Seek Information. Oxford: Oxford Scholarship. Paget, Karen M. (2015). Patriotic Betrayal: The Inside Story of the CIAs Secret Campaign to Enroll American Students in the Crusade Against Communism. New Haven London: Yale University Press. Prados, John (2006). Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. Raymond, Mark & Smith, Gordon (2014). Organized Chaos: Reimagining the Internet. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press. Sheridan, Vera (2016): Support and Surveillance: 1956 Hungarian Refugee Students in Transit to the Joyce Kilmer Reception Centre and to Higher Education Scholarships in the USA. History of Education. 2016/6. sz叩m. 775-793. Zwerling, Philip (2011). The CIA on Campus: Essays on Academic Freedom and the National Security State. Jefferson London: McFarland & Company Inc. Publishers.
- 12. Thank you for the attention! tabilajos@gmail.com