The FISE was founded in Paris in July 1946 as a merger of the International Trade Secretariat of Teachers and l'Internationale des Travailleurs de l’Enseignement (ITE), with the participation of the American Education Association.

It held meetings with trade unionists teachers from different countries and unions: Cuba, Germany, Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Italy, Mexico, etc.

One of the most important actions that FISE undertook in Greece was the solidarity campaign for the children of Palestine, entitled "a notebook for GAZA".

[6] In 2017 FISE also launched a support campaign for Yemeni children [7] and protests against the war in Yemen.

[11][12] Day to operations are directed by a Bureau which consists of the General Secretary, President, Vice-President and Secretariat, who are ex-officio members of the Administrative Committee.

The location of the headquarters immediately after the expulsion from Vienna is unclear, though FISEs' journal Teachers of the World was published from 10 Rue de Solférino, Paris 7ème.

They were denoted "Statutory Conferences" since at least 1985:[20][21] In August 1956 FISE was reported to have seven million members in 34 countries.

[27] As of 2009 FISE claimed over 26 million members within 156 trade unions in 40 countries including France, Greece, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Congo, Ethiopia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Togo, Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Bangladesh, China, India, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestinian territories, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and Yemen.

It was published in English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Portuguese and Arabic.