UNESCO: IBE EDUCATION THESAURUS

Browse the Thesaurus

I - Introduction

The UNESCO: IBE education thesaurus is a controlled vocabulary used as a tool for indexing and retrieving documents and data in the field of education in an international context. As such, it is intended for those who need an in-depth approach to the analysis of educational data at the international level.

The Thesaurus attempts to cover education and training, particularly from the policy, administrative and organizational point of view. The terminology focuses on government action in goal-setting, development and improvement of education systems and programmes, both formal and non-formal. It also includes terminology devoted to teaching and learning.

Since 1973, the Thesaurus has been used in the development of the databases and databanks of the International Bureau of Education, either by the IBE itself or by institutions contributing to these bases. Many institutions, both international and national, specializing in education use or have adapted the Thesaurus for their own needs.

The 5th edition of the Thesaurus was published in English with French and Spanish equivalents in 1991, the same year as the French/English/Spanish version, while the Spanish/English/French version appeared the following year. The 2nd Portuguese edition, with equivalents in the three other languages was published in 1996. On this occasion a number of new geographic identifiers were introduced to take into account the political changes which took place in the early 1990s. The updated database, IBETHES, has been published annually on the UNESCO databases CD-ROM up till the last edition in 2002.

II - About the 6th edition

Since 1998, the International Bureau of Education has concentrated its activities on the adaptation of educational content to the challenges of the twenty-first century, focusing on the strengthening of capacity-building in the area of curriculum change.

In 2000, thanks to the collaboration of the National Foundation for Educational Research in England and Wales (NFER), work began on updating the Thesaurus, taking into account the terminology of the IBE's new framework programme and the report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century, Learning: the treasure within, also known as the Delors report. Many new descriptors were introduced, while changes were made to the terms dealing with teaching and learning methods, and to the educational technology terms. Some descriptors and identifiers were eliminated. At the same time the number of explanatory notes was increased.

In 2002, further developments took place with the introduction of new descriptors relating to curriculum and to HIV/AIDS education, in line with the IBE's new activities. This latest October 2007 revision includes the addition of over 130 new terms, presented in the same format as the 2002 revision, and also available on the Internet in English only. The IBE is indebted to colleagues in the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, Santiago, and the Caribbean Educational Research Information Service (CERIS), University of the West Indies who collaborated with suggestions for new terms and modifications.

This new edition of the Thesaurus is available on the Internet in English only.

III - Presentation of the terms

The Thesaurus is built up of descriptors and identifiers grouped into facets representing subdivisions of broad fields. Each main term indicates:

Broader terms - Broader hierarchical relationship.
Narrower terms - Narrower hierarchical relationship.
Related terms - Associative relationship (non-hierarchical).
Subject category - The facet number and heading.
Historical note - The date of creation or history of the term's use.

It may also indicate:

Scope note - Scope note explaining the meaning or usage of the term. Where the note is taken from another thesaurus, the source is given.
Used for - Non-preferred terms or synonyms.
Use - Linking the non-preferred term to the preferred one.

IV - Browsing the Thesaurus

The Thesaurus can be browsed alphabetically online on the IBE’s web site.

The IBE Documentation Centre welcomes feedback and suggestions for the continued improvement and updating of the Thesaurus.

IBE Documentation Centre
October 2007
Doc.centre@ibe.unesco.org

V - Portable Document Format