KANDEL, ISAAC LEON

KANDEL, ISAAC LEON (1881–1965), U.S. educator, an internationally known specialist on comparative education. Kandel was born in Romania, and went to university in Manchester, England, and at Columbia University, New York. From 1914 to 1923 he was a research specialist for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and produced significant monographs, including one on the examination system in the United States. From 1923 to 1947, he was professor of education at Teachers College of Columbia University and editor of its Educational Yearbook of the International Institute. From 1944 to 1949 he edited Universities Quarterly, and from 1946 to 1953, School and Society. In 1948–50, Kandel was professor of American studies at the University of Manchester, England. Kandel contributed to the fields of educational history, educational theory, and comparative and international education. His most important work was Comparative Education (1933), and his other books include History of Secondary Education (1930), Conflicting Theories of Education (1938), Intellectual Cooperation: National and International (1944), The New Era in Education (1955), and American Education in the Twentieth Century (1957). Of great significance was his pioneering study, The Making of Nazis (1935), in which he documented the theory and practice of Nazi education and warned of its dangers. Kandel's work is distinguished by vigorous opposition to extremism in progressive education, his advocacy of international cooperation in culture and education, and his application of a precise, multilingual approach to educational research. Kandel was a member of the advisory board of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, the editorial council of Jewish Social Studies, and of the Institute for Religious and Social Studies (Jewish Theological Seminary of America). He was coauthor of an article on Jewish education in Monroe's Cyclopedia for Education. He taught for a period at the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.

bibliography:

L.A. Cremin, Isaac Leon Kandel (1966); W.W. Brickman, in: Educational Forum, 15 (1950–51), 398–412; R.G. Templeton, Isaac L. Kandel's Contribution to the Theory of American Education (1956).

[William W. Brickman]