Achieving Intergovernmental Legitimacy

In 1929, the IBE, under the leadership of Piaget, became an intergovernmental organisation. Founded by six states, it reoriented its activity toward the production and collection of knowledge about public school systems, on the basis of official sources. In order to gain legitimacy, the IBE created new organisational structures and expanded its staff. After a transition phase when it abandoned its mission of coordinating international associations, it invented a yearly event that structured its main activities: the International Conferences on Public Education, begun in 1934, with their Yearbook and several surveys on essential educational matters which were discussed during the conferences. An insert analyses the role of Switzerland in these processes.