Christian Ydesen is a professor of international and comparative education at Aalborg University, Denmark and board member of the Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA).

Christian is the Primary Investigator of the project ‘The Global History of the OECD in education’ funded by the Aalborg University talent programme and the project ‘Education Access under the Reign of Testing and Inclusion’ funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark.

His primary disciplinary fields are history of education, sociology of education, policy studies, educational testing, accountability, and comparative education. He has published several articles on topics such as educational testing, international organisations, accountability, educational psychology and diversity in education from historical and international perspectives.

Fellowships/Visiting Professorships

Visiting research fellow at Moray House, University of Edinburgh (2008-2009)

Visiting research fellow at the School of Education, University of Birmingham (2013)

Visiting research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh (2016)

International Guest Lecturer, University of Göttingen (2018)

Visiting research fellow at the Department of Education, University of Oxford (2019)

International Guest Lecturer, University of Granada (2019-)

Honorary Research Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2020-2021).

Journal Editorships

Executive Editor of European Educational Research Journal

Journal articles

Ydesen, C., & Andersen, C. K. (2020). Implementing inclusive education policies – the challenges of organizational change in a Danish municipality. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 6(1), 69–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/20020317.2020.1733848

Ydesen, C., & Andreasen, K. E. (2020). Historical Roots of the Global Testing Culture in Education. Nordic Studies in Education, 40(2), 149–166. https://doi.org/10.23865/nse.v40.2229

Ydesen, C. & Buchardt, M. (2020) Citizen Ideals and Education in Nordic Welfare State School Reforms, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education (forthcoming)

Ydesen, C., & Bomholt, A. (2020). Accountability implications of the OECD’s economistic approach to education: A historical case analysis. Journal of Educational Change, vol. 21, pp. 37-57. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-019-09355-1

Ydesen, C., & Grek, S. (2019). Securing organisational survival: A historical inquiry into the OECD’s work in education during the 1960s. Paedagogica Historica, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/00309230.2019.1604774

Ydesen, C. & Andreasen, K. (2019) Koblinger mellem økonomi og uddannelse – et rids af dansk transnational uddannelseshistorie, EDUCARE, no. 1, pp. 1-25.

Ydesen, C., Hamre, B & Andreasen, K. (2018) Differentiation of Students in the Early Danish Welfare State: Professional Entanglements Between Educational Psychologists and Psychiatrists, Nordic Journal of Educational History, Vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 73–96

Ørskov, F. F., & Ydesen, C. (2018). Playing the game of IQ testing in England and Denmark in the 1930s–1960s—a socio-material perspective. Oxford Review of Education, 44(5), 599–615. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2018.1491397

Kelly, P., Andreasen, K. E., Kousholt, K., McNess, E., & Ydesen, C. (2017). Education governance and standardised tests in Denmark and England. In: Journal of Education Policy, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2017.1360518

Padovan-Özdemir, M. & Ydesen, C. (2016) Professional Encounters with the Post-WWII Immigrant – A Privileged Prism for Studying the Shaping of European Welfare Nation-States. In: Paedagogica Historica, Themed Issue: Shaping European Welfare Nation-States through Professional Encounters with the Post-WWII Immigrant, Padovan-Özdemir, M. & Ydesen, C. guest eds., 52:5

Myers, K. & Ydesen, C. (2016) The Imperial Welfare State? Decolonization, education and professional interventions on immigrant children in Birmingham, 1948-1971. In: Paedagogica Historica, Themed Issue: Shaping European Welfare Nation-States through Professional Encounters with the Post-WWII Immigrant, Padovan-Özdemir, M. & Ydesen, C. guest eds., 52:5, DOI: 10.1080/00309230.2016.1192207

Andreasen, K.E. & Ydesen, C. (2016) Educating for peace: The role and impact of international organisations in interwar and post-war Danish school experiments, 1918–1975. In: Nordic Journal of Educational History, vol. 2. No. 2, pp. 3-25

Ydesen, C. (2016). Crafting the English welfare state—interventions by Birmingham Local Education Authorities, 1948–1963. British Educational Research Journal, http://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3223

Christensen, I.L. & Ydesen, C. (2015) Routes of Knowledge: Towards a Methodological Framework for Tracing the Historical Impact of International Organizations. In: European Education, 47(3), pp. 274-288

Christensen, I.L. & Ydesen, C. (2015). Internationale organisationers virkningshistorie: Teoretiske og metodiske overvejelser. TEMP – tidsskrift for historie, 10, 16-33.

McNess, E.; Kelly, P.; Kousholt, K.; Andreasen, K.E.; Ydesen, C. (2015) Standardised testing in compulsory schooling in England and Denmark: – A comparative study and analysis. In: Bildung und Erziehung, 68(3), pp. 329-348

Andreasen, K.E. & Ydesen, C. (2015) Folkeskolens test- og evalueringspraksisser i internationalt perspektiv 1945-1990 [Test- and evaluation practices of the public school system in international perspective, 1945-1990]. In: Temp, vol. 10, pp. 92-115

Dorn, S. & Ydesen, C. (2014) Towards a Comparative and International History of School Testing and Accountability. In: Education Policy Analysis Archive, vol. 22, no. 120, pp. 1-11 (http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v22.1913)

Andreasen, K.E. & Ydesen, C. (2014) Accountability Practices in the History of Danish Primary Public Education from the 1660s to the Present. In: Education Policy Analysis Archive, vol. 22, no. 120, pp. 1-31 (http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v22.1618)

Hamre, B. & Ydesen, C. (2014) The Ascent of Educational Psychology in Denmark in the Interwar Years. In: Nordic Journal of Educational History, vol. I(2), pp. 87-111

Ydesen, C. (2014) High-Stakes Educational Testing and Democracy: antagonistic or symbiotic relationship? In: Education, Citizenship and Social Justice. February, 9(2), pp. 97-114

Andreasen, K. E.; Rasmussen, A.; Ydesen, C. (2013) Standardized Testing, Sociology of Education: An A-to-Z Guide, Ainsworth, J. (ed.), vol. 2, Sage Publications, Incorporated, pp. 737-740.

Andreasen, K. E. & Rasmussen, P., Ydesen, C. (2013) Den diskrete internationalisering: Danske uddannelser i international kontekst 1968-1982 [The discrete internationalization: Danish education in international context 1968-1982]. In Uddannelseshistorie. 21 pages.

Ludvigsen, K., Lundahl, C. & Ydesen, C. (2013) Creating an educational testing profession – the emergence and impact of the Scandinavian testing community, 1920-1960. In European Educational Research Journal. Special Issue. 2013, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 120-138.

Ydesen, C. (2013) Educational Testing as an Accountability Measure: Drawing on Twentieth-century Danish History of Education Experiences. In Paedagogica Historica, 49:5, pp. 716-733.

Ydesen, C. (2012) Børn i særklasse – Lærerbedømmelser og test i det 20. Århundrede [Children in remedial education – teacher evaluations and tests in the 20th century]. In Årbog for Uddannelseshistorie.

Ydesen, C. (2012) At skabe orden i skolen – intelligenstestning på Frederiksberg 1930-1943 [Creating Order in School – Intelligence Testing at Frederiksberg, 1930-1943]. In Temp.

Ydesen, C. (2012) The international space of the Danish testing community in the interwar years. In Paedagogica Historica, 48 (4), 2012, pp. 589-599

Garsdal, J. & Ydesen, C. (2009) The debate on educational and psychological testing in the United States. In Education Review. vol. 12, no. 8, June 15.

Monographs

Rasmussen, A. & Ydesen, C. (2020) Cultivating Excellence in Education, Educational Governance Research, Cham: Springer International Publishing

Øland, T., Ydesen, C., Padovan-Özdemir, M. & Moldenhawer, B. (2019) State-Crafting on the Fringes – Studies of Welfare Work Addressing the Other, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum

Ydesen, C. (2011) The Rise of High-Stakes Educational Testing in Denmark, 1920-1970. Frankfurt a.M: Peter Lang Verlag.

Book chapters

Skedsmo, G., Rönnberg. L. & Ydesen, C. (2021) National Testing and Accountability in the Scandinavian Welfare States: Education Policy Translations in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. World Yearbook of Education (Forthcoming)

Reder, T. & Ydesen, C. (2021) Policy Borrowing and Evidence in Danish Education Policy Preparation – The Case of the Danish Public School Reform of 2013, In: Karseth, B., Sivesind, K. & Steiner-Khamsi, G. Evidence and Expertise in Nordic Education Policies: A Comparative Network Analysis from the Nordic Region, Palgrave (forthcoming)

Ydesen, C., Kauko, J. & Magnúsdóttir, B.R. (2021) The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – A Field Analysis of Knowledge Brokers in Denmark, Finland, and Iceland, In: Karseth, B., Sivesind, K. & Steiner-Khamsi, G. Evidence and Expertise in Nordic Education Policies: A Comparative Network Analysis from the Nordic Region, Palgrave (forthcoming)

Ydesen, C. (2020) What can we learn about global education from historical and global policy studies of the OECD? In: Ydesen, C. (ed.) The OECD’s Historical Rise in Education: The Formation of a Global Governing Complex, Global Histories of Education, London & New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-14.

Ydesen, C. (2020) The Formation and Workings of a Global Education Governing Complex, In: Ydesen, C. (ed.) The OECD’s Historical Rise in Education: The Formation of a Global Governing Complex, Global Histories of Education, London & New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 291-303.

Elfert, M. & Ydesen, C. (2020) The Rise of Global Governance in Education: The OEEC and UNESCO, 1945-1960, In. Gram-Skjoldager, K. (ed.) Organizing the World – International Organization and the Emergence of International Public Administration 1920-1960, Bloomsbury (accepted)

Øland, T., Ydesen, C., Padovan-Özdemir, M. and Moldenhawer, B. (2019) The Othered and Professionals of the Post-1945 Welfare State: Framing Studies of Statecrafting, Trine Øland, Christian Ydesen, Marta Padovan-Özdemir and Bolette Moldenhawer (eds.) Statecrafting on the Fringes: Studies of Welfare Work Addressing the Other, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press

Ydesen, C. (2019) Statist Capital and the Public Good of the Danish Welfare Nation-State, 1945–1970s: A Comparative Historical Case Study of Individuals, Groups, and Professional Interventions, In: Trine Øland, Christian Ydesen, Marta Padovan-Özdemir and Bolette Moldenhawer (eds.) Statecrafting on the Fringes: Studies of Welfare Work Addressing the Other, Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, pp. 33-89.

Ydesen, C. & Verschaeve, J. (2018) The OECD Development Assistance Committee and Peace: Instituting Peace by Economic Means. In: Aigul Kulnazarova, A. & Popovski, V. (eds.) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Approaches to Peace, London & New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Hamre, B. Morin, A & Ydesen, C. (2018) The tension field between testing and inclusion: Introducing a research endeavour. In: Hamre, B. Morin, A & Ydesen, C. (eds.) Testing and Inclusive schooling – international challenges and opportunities, London: Routledge

Hamre, B. Morin, A & Ydesen, C. (2018) Optimizing the educational subject between testing and inclusion in an era of neoliberalism – Musings on a research agenda and its future perspectives. In: Hamre, B. Morin, A & Ydesen, C. (eds.) Testing and Inclusive schooling – international challenges and opportunities, London: Routledge

Ydesen, C. & Au, W. (2018) Educational testing, the question of the public good, and the room for inclusion: A comparative study between Scotland and the United States. In: Hamre, B. Morin, A & Ydesen, C. (eds.) Testing and Inclusive schooling – international challenges and opportunities, London: Routledge

Buchardt, M. & Ydesen, C. (2018) Testing the Culturally Deviant of the Welfare State: Greenlandic Children and the Children of Labour Migrants in Danish Minority Education, 1960s to 1970s. In: Lawn, M. & Alarcon, C. Student Assessment Cultures in Historical Perspective, Berlin: Peter Lang

Dussel, I. & Ydesen, C. (2016) Jamie Torres Bodet and the struggle over history writing of the Americas: The Mexican Experience. In: Kulnazarova, A. & Ydesen, C. (eds.) UNESCO Without Borders: Educational Campaigns for International Understanding, Routledge

Ydesen, C., & Castro, H. R. (2016). The Historical Confluence of Education for International Understanding and Textbook Revisions in Brazil, 1945–1960. In Kulnazarova, A. & Ydesen, C. (eds.) UNESCO Without Borders: Educational Campaigns for International Understanding, Routledge

Kulnazarova, A. & Ydesen, C. (2016) The Nature and Methodology of UNESCO’s Educational Campaigns. In: Kulnazarova, A. & Ydesen, C. (eds.) UNESCO Without Borders: Educational Campaigns for International Understanding, Routledge

Ydesen, C. (2016) Debating International Understanding in the Western World: The American Approach to UNESCO’s Educational Campaigns, 1946-54. In: Kulnazarova, A. & Ydesen, C. (eds.) UNESCO Without Borders: Educational Campaigns for International Understanding, London: Routledge, pp. 239-255

Dussel, I. & Ydesen, C. (2016) UNESCO and the Improvement of History Textbooks in Mexico, 1945-1960. In: Duedahl, P. (ed.) The History of UNESCO: Global Actions and Impacts, Palgrave MacMillan

Andreasen, K.E. & Ydesen, C. (2016) The International Space of the Danish Testing Community in the Post-war Years. In: Smith, Willam C. (ed.) The Global Testing Culture: Shaping Education Policy, Perceptions, and Practice, Oxford Studies in Comparative Education, pp. 115-130.

Ydesen, C., & Øland, T. (2015). Professional Interventions as a State-Crafting Grammar: Using a Sociological Concept of State in Historical Research. In M. Lytje, T. K. Nielsen, & M. Ottoway Jørgensen (Eds.), Challenging Ideas?: Theory and Empirical Research in the Social Sciences and Humanities (pp. 140-160). Newcaste Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Jacobsen, A.J. & Ydesen, C. (2015) Forsvarets udvælgelse af pilotaspiranter – test som egnethedsinstrument [The Selection of Military Pilots – Testing as an instrument of aptitude]. In: Buchardt, M.; Andreasen, K.E.; Rasmussen, A.; Ydesen, C. (Eds.) Test og prøvelser – Oprindelse, udvikling, aktualitet [Tests and Assessments – Origin, Development, Actuality]. Aalborg: Aalborg University Press

Andreasen, K.E. & Ydesen, C. (2015) Skolemoden og skoleparat – Vurderinger af børn ved overgangen til skolen [School maturity and school readiness – assessments of pre-school children]. Buchardt, M.; Andreasen, K.E.; Rasmussen, A.; Ydesen, C. (Eds.) Test og prøvelser – Oprindelse, udvikling, aktualitet [Tests and Assessments – Origin, Development, Actuality]. Aalborg: Aalborg University Press

Andreasen, K.E. & Ydesen, C. (2014) Test, prøver og eksamener i sociologisk perspektiv [Tests and exams in a sociological perspective]. In: Rasmussen, Jens & Dorf, Hans (eds.) Pædagogisk sociologi. Hans Reitzels forlag, chapter 7, pp. 147-162

Ydesen, C. (2014) Skolens nye eksperter [The school’s new experts]. In: Coninck-Smith, N.de & Appel, C. Dansk skolehistorie. Hverdag, vilkår og visioner gennem 500 år [Schools in Denmark: A History of Everyday Life, Conditions, and Visions over 500 Years], vol. IV, chapter 13, pp. 242-256.

Ydesen, C. (2013) The creative democratic potential of the multitude: Solidarity and love as transcendence in immanence. In: Agustin, O. G. & Ydesen, C. (eds.) Post-Crisis Perspectives – The Common and its Powers. Frankfurt a.M: Peter Lang Verlag.

Ydesen, C., & Agustin, O. G. (2013). In Search of Post-Crisis Perspectives. In: Agustin, O. G. & Ydesen, C. (eds.) Post-Crisis Perspectives – The Common and its Powers. Frankfurt a.M: Peter Lang Verlag

Ydesen, C. (2011) Totality and exteriority: the case of high-stakes testing in intercultural education. In: Kofoed, O.; Paulsen, M; Rasmussen, J.K.; Ydesen, C. (eds.) Learning from the Other. NSU Press. Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2011, pp. 219-227

Ydesen, C. (2011) Educating Greenlanders and Germans – Minority Education in the Danish Commonwealth, 1945-1970. In: Niedrig, H., Ydesen, C. (eds.) Writing Postcolonial Histories of Intercultural Education. Frankfurt a.M: Peter Lang Verlag. 2011, pp. 239-267.

Ydesen, C. (2010) Educational selection technologies in neocolonial Greenland – The preparation scheme in the Greenlandic educational system 1961–1976. In: Larsson, Esbjörn & Westberg, Johannes (eds.) Utbildningens sociala och kulturella historia. Uppsala, pp. 147-167.

Website

https://vbn.aau.dk/en/persons/124965