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2.1 Different purposes of comparative education studies

Education is a rich site for comparative study because, as the comparativist Harold Noah noted, it is the ‘touchstone’ of any society (Noah, 1986, pp. 553–4): a standard by which a society is judged, where we find its core values embedded, and where such values may be examined and challenged. The comparative scholar Mark Bray has written about the different actors and the wide and varied purposes of comparative education studies, for instance:

Parents commonly compare schools and systems of education in search of the institutions which will serve their children’s needs most effectively. Practitioners, including school principals and teachers, make comparisons in order to improve the operation of their institutions. Policy makers in individual countries examine education systems elsewhere in order to identify ways to achieve social, political and other objectives in their own settings; International agencies compare patterns in different countries in order to improve the advice they give to national governments and others. Academics undertake comparisons in order to improve understanding of both the forces which shape education systems and processes in different settings, and of the impact of education systems and processes on social and other development.

A sixth important purpose of comparative studies is to improve knowledge and skills for effective teaching that will help children reach their full potential.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Comparative Education

Introduction, general overviews.

• The Early Stage
• The 19th Century
• The 20th Century to the Present
• Education and Development
• A Codified Body of Theory and Knowledge Informing the Field
• Shifts in Paradigms
• The Case Study Approach versus Large-Scale Research
• Complexity, Continua, and Transitions
• International Testing Regimes
• Higher Education Programs and Professional Societies
• Scholarly Journals and Publications
• International and Regional Education Databanks and Statistics

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Comparative Education by Robert Arnove , Stephen Franz , Patricia K. Kubow LAST REVIEWED: 29 May 2019 LAST MODIFIED: 29 May 2019 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0152

Comparative education is a loosely bounded field that examines the sources, workings, and outcomes of education systems, as well as leading education issues, from comprehensive, multidisciplinary, cross-national, and cross-cultural perspectives. Despite the diversity of approaches to studying relations between education and society, Arnove, et al. 1992 (cited under General Overviews ) maintains that the field is held together by a fundamental belief that education can be improved and can serve to bring about change for the better in all nations. The authors further note that comparative inquiry often has sought to discover how changes in educational provision, form, and content might contribute to the eradication of poverty or the end of gender-, class-, and ethnic-based inequities. A belief in the transformative power of education systems is aligned with three principal dimensions of the field. Arnove 2013 (cited under General Overviews ) designates these dimensions as scientific/theoretical, pragmatic/ameliorative, and global/international understanding and peace. According to Farrell 1979 (cited under General Overviews ), the scientific dimension of the field relates to theory building with comparison being absolutely essential to understanding what relationships pertain under what conditions among variables in the education system and society. Bray and Thomas 1995 (cited under General Overviews ) point out that comparison enables researchers to look at the entire world as a natural laboratory in viewing the multiple ways in which societal factors, educational policies, and practices may vary and interact in otherwise unpredictable and unimaginable ways. With regard to the pragmatic dimension, comparative educators have studied other societies to learn what works well and why. At the inception of study of comparative education as a mode of inquiry in the 19th century, pioneer Marc-Antoine Jullien de Paris (b. 1775–d. 1848) aimed at not only informing and improving educational policy, but also contributing to greater international understanding. According to Giddens 1991 , Rivzi and Lingard 2010 , and Carney 2009 (all cited under General Overviews ), international understanding has become an even more important feature of comparative education as processes of globalization increasingly require people to recognize how socioeconomic forces, emanating from what were previously considered distant and remote areas of the world, impinge upon their daily lives. The priority given to each of these dimensions varies not only across individuals but also across national and regional boundaries and epistemic communities. Yamada 2015 (cited under General Overviews ), for example, finds notable differences between the discourses and practices of North American and Japanese researchers, with the former tending to locate their research in existing theories and the latter trying to understand a particular situation before eventually finding patterns or elements applicable to a wider situation. Takayama 2011 (cited under General Overviews ) notes that one reason for differences in research traditions is the Japanese emphasis on area studies. The evolution of comparative education as a scholarly endeavor reflects changes in theories, research methodologies, and events on the world stage that have required more sophisticated responses to understanding transformations occurring within and across societies.

The references cited here include leading English-language textbooks in the field that introduce readers to the principal dimensions of comparative education, including its contributions to theory building, more informed and enlightened educational policy and practice, and international understanding and world peace. They illustrate the increasing focus of the field on how globalization impacts national education systems and, in turn, are refracted and changed by local contexts. Japan, which has one of the longest traditions of comparative studies, is included to point out differences in scholarly traditions.

Arnove, Robert F. 2013. Introduction: Reframing comparative education; The dialectic of the global and the local. In Comparative education: The dialectic of the global and the local . 4th ed. Edited by Robert F. Arnove, Carlos Alberto Torres, and Stephen Franz, 1–26. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

The global economy and the increasing interconnectedness of societies pose shared challenges for education worldwide. Understanding the tensions between the global and the local is necessary to reframing the field of comparative education. The global-local dialectic is explored in relation to Africa, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States.

Arnove, Robert F., Philip G. Altbach, and Gail P. Kelly. 1992. Introduction. In Emergent issues in education . Edited by Robert F. Arnove, Philip G. Altbach, and Gail P. Kelly, 1–10. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.

The three editors/authors discuss how the book reflects the field as it emerged in the 1990s. They review the debates over theory that have remained unresolved since they emerged in the 1960s. Issues examined include modernization without Westernization, the role of international donor agencies, the reform of educational governance, public-private relations, the changing patterns of higher education, the education of girls and women, the professionalization of teaching, and the nature of literacy campaigns.

Bray, Mark, and R. Murray Thomas. 1995. Levels of comparison in educational studies: Different insights from different literatures and the value of multilevel analysis. Harvard Educational Review 65.3: 474–491.

DOI: 10.17763/haer.65.3.g3228437224v4877

The initial conceptual framework provided by Bray and Thomas constitutes a seminal contribution to comparative education that alerts scholars to the importance of multilevel units of analysis along three dimensions: geographic/local units (ranging from world/regions/ continents to that of schools/classrooms/individuals); nonlocational demographic units (ranging from ethnic/age/religious/gender groups to entire populations); and aspects of education and society (typically subjects studied, such as curriculum, teaching methods, educational finance, and management structures).

Carney, Stephen. 2009. Negotiating policy in an age of globalization: Exploring educational “policyscapes” in Denmark, Nepal, and China. Comparative Education Review 53.1: 63–68.

DOI: 10.1086/593152

The author explores the processes of policy implementation in Denmark, Nepal, and China. Carney introduces the notion of “policyscape” (one of “hyper-neoliberalism”) as a common context for understanding change efforts at different levels of education in particular localities.

Farrell, Joseph P. 1979. The necessity of comparison in educational studies: Different insights from the salience of science and the problem of comparability. Comparative Education Review 23.1: 3–16.

DOI: 10.1086/446010

In this presidential address, Farrell affirms that all sciences are comparative. The goal of science is not only to establish that relationships exist between variables, but also to determine the range over which they exist. Farrell makes a major contribution in discussing how variables in education-society relations may not be phenomenally identical, but they can be conceptually equivalent. A body of scholarship can be gradually constructed to establish comparative education as a disciplinary field of study.

Giddens, Anthony. 1991. The consequences of modernity . Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.

Giddens discusses the nature of social institutions at the end of the 20th century. Societies are entering a stage of “high modernity”—not post-modernity—as dominant forms of social and cultural organization have not yet been radically transformed. The current stage of world development provides previously unavailable opportunities for the well-being of humanity; however, it also poses systemic dangers resulting from totalitarian governments, degrading industrial work, environmental destruction, and militarism.

Rivzi, Fazal, and Bob Lingard. 2010. Globalizing education policy . London: Routledge.

The authors critique “the rationalist approach” to policy studies that have a narrow national focus. Instead, they offer insights into how reform trends in curriculum, pedagogy, evaluation, governance, and equity policies are located within a global framework. Their conclusions call for a new imaginary of globalization that challenges the dominance of the “neoliberal construction” of the world based in economics, while strengthening social solidarity and democratic learning within and across national borders.

Takayama, Keita. 2011. Reconceptualizing the politics of Japanese education: Reimagining comparative studies of Japanese education. In Reimagining Japanese education: Borders, transfers, circulations, and the comparative . Edited by David Blake Willis and Jeremy Rappleye, 247–285. Oxford: Symposium Books.

Takayama makes a strong case for viewing a dialogic relation between Japanese and non-Japanese research traditions that enables scholars to draw upon external transformations that have occurred in Japanese society and education in what he calls the “post-post-war time.”

Yamada, Shoko. 2015. The constituent elements of comparative education in Japan: A comparison with North America. Comparative Education Review 59.2: 234–260.

DOI: 10.1086/680172

Yamada analyzes how comparative education has been discussed and practiced in Japan, based on a questionnaire completed by members of the Japan Comparative Education Society and classification of articles published in its journal between 1975 and 2011. This information is then contrasted with North American trends identified by scholars examining research by members of the Comparative and International Education Society and articles in the Comparative Education Review (cited under Scholarly Journals and Publications ).

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Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2018

ISBN : 978-1-83867-416-8 , eISBN : 978-1-83867-415-1

Publication date: 27 September 2019

In his interview as part of the project to mark the 50th anniversary of the Comparative and International Education Society, Steve Klees offered sound advice to young scholars entering the field of comparative education, “Understand our debates, understand there are no right positions in our debates, and understand your own position in our debates and engage in the debates.”

In this chapter, the author argues that in recent years those theoretical debates that are central to comparative education have been ignored, or at least played down, resulting in a lot of work that is “atheoretical.” In this context, “atheoretical” does not mean that the work is not based on theoretical assumptions but that those assumptions are not thoroughly examined. Consequently, certain positions are adopted by default, seen as “natural.” This has not only affected comparative education but also is endemic to the field of educational research more generally, where methodological debate has been simplified to a choice between quantitative or qualitative methods.

This chapter will examine the epistemological, ontological, and sociological decisions that must be the foundation of any educational research, illustrating the points with key debates in the field of comparative and international education.

• Methodology
• Perspective
• Epistemology

Turner, D.A. (2019), "What Is Comparative Education?", Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2018 ( International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 37 ), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 99-114. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-367920190000037011

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Foundations of Education

Key concepts.

• globalization
• homogenization
• postcolonialism
• postmodernity
• social cohesion
• social equality

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Introducing Comparative Education

Credit: the text below is excerpted from: hayhoe, ruth et al. (2017). chapter 1: why study comparative education in bickmore, kathy et al. comparative and international education: issues for teachers. toronto: canadian scholars press. license: excerpted wtih the permission of the author (r. hayhoe)., researching scholarly terms.

Understanding Others, Educating Ourselves: Getting More from International Comparative Studies in Education (2003)

Chapter: 1 introduction and rationale, 1 introduction and rationale, introduction.

The increasing scrutiny of earlier studies has revealed their limitations and the consequent need for improvement in the planning, execution, and dissemination of international comparative research…. The lack of an adequate system of education indicators to inform education policy making has become increasingly apparent. Data are not collected regularly, systematically, or with enough coordination either to satisfy natural curiosity about education systems around the world or to answer the questions of researchers and policy makers about changes over time in education in a variety of countries. Trend data are needed on many aspects of education.

A Collaborative Agenda for Improving International Comparative Studies in Education (National Research Council, 1993, hereafter the 1993 Agenda)

By the last half of the 1990s, many concerns described in this excerpt from the 1993 Agenda of the Board on International Comparative Studies in Education had been or were well on the way to being resolved. The proposed solutions, however, produced several new, somewhat overlapping problems. Previously, there was a scarcity of data sufficiently robust to support valid cross-national comparisons; today, a glut of good-quality data overwhelms the field and remains largely unanalyzed, even as new follow-on surveys are launched. Previously, large-scale cross-national education surveys were initiated sporadically, every few years; however, between 1999 and 2003, data collection for at least one and as many as three surveys was scheduled annually.

Previously, U.S. schools faced few mandated tests, and most were willing to participate in the occasional voluntary, internationally oriented tests; today, with increased requirements for mandatory testing, increasing numbers of schools are unwilling to add to their testing burden by participating in voluntary assessments. The infrastructure for conducting large-scale international studies that has developed over the past decade, which plays an important role in ensuring the quality of large-scale international education surveys, has become institutionalized, and the desire to keep this infrastructure engaged has played a role in decisions to support new and more frequent studies. Indeed, there is an increasing concern that international assessments are now conducted more frequently than reforms can produce change in the U.S. education system, which may discourage ongoing, longer term reform efforts.

In addition, the results of large-scale domestic and international surveys are raising a host of questions that often are addressed best by smaller scale studies requiring a wide range of research methods, both qualitative and quantitative. For example, although a full series of more detailed thematic analysis of the data was commissioned before the completion of the first Programme for International Assessment of Student Achievement (PISA) 1 international report, it was of necessity carried out by researchers closely aligned with the study. Few new initiatives have been launched either to cull insight from ongoing nonsurvey-based international studies or to support systematic new ones attuned to independent research agenda.

Despite major investments in a half-dozen large-scale international surveys over the past decade, U.S. public discourse about education remains curiously untouched by international comparisons. Beyond the common knowledge that U.S. students are not first in the world in mathematics and science, educational rhetoric in the United States remains essentially one-dimensional, lacking the sense of rich possibilities that international perspectives can provide. Possible reasons for this deficiency include the general imperviousness of U.S. education policy to domestic or international education research (Lagemann, 2000), and widely shared assumptions that other areas of the world are simply not relevant to the United States. The lack both of interpretive international comparative education studies and of secondary analysis focused on issues of primary concern to the public and policy makers, however, certainly contributes

to the persistence of an inwardly focused approach to education studies in the United States.

The Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 places strong emphasis on using rigorous scientific methods to study education (U.S. Congress, 2002). This act has reorganized the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement by creating the Institute of Education Sciences, which includes three centers: the National Center for Education Research, the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), one of the main U.S. funders of international comparative education research. This is an important moment to examine the nature of international comparative education research and to reaffirm its critical contribution to a well-rounded program of domestic education research in the United States.

The purpose of this report—which is directed to federal sponsors of international comparative education research, domestic and international researchers, private foundations, and state and district officials who are eager to improve their part of the U.S. education system—is to lay out the rationale for such research; describe its scope, purpose, and potential impact; and make recommendations regarding future directions. Fundamentally, international comparative studies contribute to basic education research by documenting the existence of a much broader array of educational practices and outcomes than is available in the United States alone. International studies, however, can do much more than this. The rest of this chapter explores the current rationale for U.S. participation in international comparative studies and discusses the scope of such studies. Chapter 2 outlines the range of international comparative studies and their relative costs and presents recommendations for moving toward a more balanced research agenda for these studies. Chapter 3 draws on some recent studies to illustrate different ways that international comparative studies have—or, in some cases, have not—made an impact on the U.S. education system. Chapter 4 begins by offering suggestions for continuing to improve one type of study—large-scale, cross-national surveys— with which the board has been mainly involved since its inception, and to address key issues that persist or have emerged with those types of studies since the board’s 1990 report, A Framework and Principles for International Comparative Studies in Education (National Research Council, 1990, hereafter referred to as the 1990 Framework ). It continues by addressing the pressing need for more public access to the findings of all types of international comparative studies and the consequent need for an array of studies addressing a wide range of questions that call for many different research methodologies. Chapter 5 examines the implications of recommendations from earlier chapters for supporting infrastructure, both fi-

nancial and organizational, for future international comparative studies of education. The final chapter provides a summary of the board’s recommendations.

Although many features of international data collection in educational research have changed over the past decade, at least one has not: research that provides comparative information across nations continues to expand understanding of education as a social and economic institution and provide rich sources of ideas about how nations can strengthen teaching and student achievement. Throughout its history, the U.S. education system has benefited immensely from ideas borrowed and adapted from education systems in other countries. These ideas range from methods for early childhood education (France, Germany, and Italy), a model for the structure of higher education (Germany), and goals for mass urban education (England), to the Suzuki method of teaching music (Japan).

Holmes (1985) traces the earliest efforts to observe and learn from foreign education systems to Plato’s reference to Sparta in The Republic . He dates the beginning of comparative education as a systematic study to the early 19th century. He mentions early reservations about the limitations of what is likely to be learned from such study. He cited one educator who claimed that “the practical value of studying other systems of education is that much can be learned about one’s own system of education.” His second claim was that “what goes on outside the schools matters even more than the things inside schools to an understanding of any system of education” (p. 866).

U.S. interest in international education studies has waxed and waned over the decades, but it grew particularly keen after the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued its report, A Nation at Risk (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) . That report made extensive use of findings from then-current national and international comparative studies of student achievement, portraying them in provocative terms. 2 The data cited in that report seized the interest of policy makers, who had little previous knowledge of or interest in comparative international education statistics but who subsequently evolved into strong proponents of comparative research at both state and cross-national lev-

els. 3 Some scholars, however, questioned the use of these particular international studies to judge the U.S. education system, given their imperfect sampling and other technical problems at that time. 4 Nonetheless, by 1990, the president and the governors acknowledged the importance of international perspectives in formulating domestic education policy when they defined national education goals for the nation. The United States was challenged to be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement by the turn of the century, and to ensure that every adult “will be literate and will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a global economy” (Rothman, 2002).

This focus on comparisons of achievement brought valuable attention to the potential benefits of learning about education in other countries. However, the country rankings that were so widely publicized did little to suggest the breadth of international research.

Cuban (1988) has argued that one remarkable feature of U.S. schools is how alike they are. In contrast, education systems in many other countries encompass a far greater degree of diversity. For example, there tends to be great diversity across nations regarding what citizens expect of their schools, what roles teachers play in society, and what education services governments and private organizations provide. International comparative research in education can help to expand the repertoire of possible practices and policies in several ways.

International education studies help to define what is achievable. How much can students learn and at what age can they learn it? How do different countries mix different amounts of pre-service and in-service professional development for beginning teachers at the early childhood, primary, secondary, and tertiary levels? How do different countries determine the optimal number of hours of schooling at each of these levels? What roles do parents with different levels of education play in governing and supporting schools? Most people would be reluctant to conduct controlled experiments with their children’s educations, but naturally oc-

curring variation in other countries can help develop more confidence in—or courage to consider changing—U.S. policies and practices. Studies such as PISA, for example, demonstrate that high average performance does not have to be associated with the wide disparities in performance found in the United States.

International comparative research can help researchers and policy makers to observe and characterize consequences of different practices and policies for different groups, under different circumstances . Research can examine correlates of various approaches (Holmes, 1985; Postlethwaite, 1999) and explore the reasons for observed differences in student performance, thus enhancing confidence in the generalizability of studies ( 1990 Framework ). It can also contribute to and possibly influence the content and direction of useful debate concerning public issues, such as teenage employment, and the terms of service of teaching, by enhancing the discourse through increasing knowledge about a wider range of alternatives and possible consequences.

International comparative studies often bring to light concepts for understanding education that have been overlooked in the United States, helping U.S. educators to think in terms of new principles and categories. The Second International Mathematics Study helped to popularize the concept of the intended, implemented, and achieved curriculum and facilitated more nuanced discussions and studies about relationships between curriculum and student achievement. A recent book highlighting the expert, “profound” understanding characteristic of Chinese elementary mathematics teachers (Ma, 1999) casts new light on layers of understanding within subject matter knowledge. PISA’s efforts to measure “preparedness for life” have led to new ways to operationalize different types of literacy.

International comparisons of education often lead us to identify and question beliefs and assumptions that are taken for granted . This contribution is sometimes characterized as making the familiar strange and the strange familiar (Kluckhohn, 1944). International comparisons help to raise questions about the universality of particular features of the U.S. education system and offer new insight into current disputes. For example, Japanese teachers can offer cogent reasons why classes of fewer than 20 students are more difficult to teach than larger classes, and why, at the preschool level, teachers often should not discipline a misbehaving student.

Large-scale cross-national surveys have received much attention in the United States in the two decades since the release of A Nation at Risk. Many of the benefits of international comparative education studies, however, are achieved by relatively small-scale, low-cost, more open-ended studies. Such studies, in addition to contributing to our understanding of

the broader range of possibilities in education, are essential precursors to large-scale studies because they help to identify contextual features of school systems that are common to many countries and can be quantitatively measured. Similarly, questions raised by counterintuitive findings of large-scale studies are often best explored by smaller scale, targeted studies.

International comparisons of education systems often produce outcomes that are not part of their original rationale but that nonetheless make valuable contributions to the improvement of U.S. education and international relations.

In an increasingly interdependent world, they provide useful insights into the socioeconomic structure of other countries and cultures. For example, the insights of comparative education scholars who, in relative obscurity, had studied religious schools in Central and South Asia became more valued at the end of 2001, when graduates of those schools attacked the United States.

The challenges posed by international studies can increase the educational research capacity of the United States as well as that of other countries ( 1990 Framework ). For example, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 5 Videotape Classroom Study helped to raise the technical sophistication of video research methods in the United States and elsewhere. Furthermore, questions of sampling, instrument design, data gathering, and data analysis that had to be addressed in the second and third international mathematics studies yielded results and experience that have been useful in national surveys of achievement.

All these benefits do not flow automatically from every study. Rather, they are more likely to result from systematic investments in a variety of studies, differing in methodology, scope, and purpose, at least some of which try to test and build on earlier findings. Simply observing and measuring apparently effective practices in other countries is not sufficient to bring about desired improvement in U.S. schools. Ideally, promising practices would undergo several rounds of study in the context of their country of origin, and in the United States, in which practitioners and researchers attempt to construct and test hypotheses about the rela-

tionship between the practice and desired outcomes in different settings. More often, informal experiments initiated by practitioners using innovations from other countries attract the attention of researchers post hoc; policy makers call on researchers to investigate promising practices; and, of course, researchers themselves may initiate exploratory studies. Instances of each of these cases are highlighted in boxes throughout the next chapter.

Since 1988, the Board on International Comparative Studies in Education (BICSE) at the (U.S.) National Research Council of the National Academies has engaged in activities designed to increase the rigor and sophistication of international comparative studies in education by encouraging synergies between large and smaller scale international comparative education research, to identify gaps in the existing research base, and to assist in communicating results to policy makers and the public. Under the current grant (1998-2002), funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, BICSE has sponsored public events and commissioned papers on the effects of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), the power of video technology in international education research, international perspectives on teacher quality, and advances in the methodology of cross-national surveys of education achievement. This report responds to a request from the board's sponsors under the current grant to produce a report that builds on its previous work.

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Juxtaposing Comparative Education and Teacher Education

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Introduction

An understanding of comparative education is valuable for teachers, as they are both consumers and subjects of such research. Comparative studies can inform them how their students and schools are faring, the merits of various pedagogical options and resources, how a new curriculum differs from a previous version, how their lessons can be constructed so that new learning can be developed, and so on. Comparison is also used for measuring student achievement, performance appraisals of teachers, inspections, fulfilling administrative tasks, and marketing schools – to mention but a few important applications of comparative education. This entry offers a picture of how comparative education can be integrated into a teacher education program. It suggests ways in which comparative education can be positioned within the curriculum, possible content, and some of the tools that could equip teachers to become critical consumers and subjects of comparative education. Although the...

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Bray, M., Adamson, B., & Mason, M. (Eds.). (2014). Comparative education research: Approaches and methods (2nd ed.). Hong Kong/Dordrecht: Comparative Education Research Centre/Springer.

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Marton, F., & Booth, S. (1997). Learning and awareness . Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Marton, F., Runesson, U., & Tsui, A. B. M. (2004). The space of learning. In F. Marton, A. B. M. Tsui, P. P. M. Chik, P. Y. Ko, & M. L. Lo (Eds.), Classroom discourse and the space of learning (pp. 43–62). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Raivola, R. (1985). What is comparison? Methodological and philosophical considerations. Comparative Education Review, 29 (3), 362–374.

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Adamson, B. (2019). Juxtaposing Comparative Education and Teacher Education. In: Peters, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Teacher Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1179-6_307-1

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Comparative Education

This guide provides background on the field of Comparative education and links to related to IOE archive collections.

Introduction

Comparative education is an academic and interdisciplinary subject which applies historical, philisophical and social science theories and methods to classify and explain characteristics of different national education systems. It studies why educational systems and processes vary and how education relates to wider social factors and forces. Comparative education gre from international education, which analyses and fosters international orientation in knowledge and attitudes, and brings together students, teachers and scholars from different nations to learn about and from each other.

A brief history of comparative education

Comparative education first appeared in the early 19th century alongside the rise of national education, though it did not develop as an academic subject until the 20th century. Its early development was hampered by the two World Wars, where it was used for ideological competition. One of the most important books of the inter-war period was Comparative Education (1933) by Isaac Kandel, who also edited the Educational Yearbook from 1924-1944. Other important yearbooks were published in this period, including the Yearbook of Education and the International Yearbook of Education. The first academic courses and programs were also developed at this time, including a course at the IOE. 

The Second World War was a catalyst for the development of comparative education. The field developed to include not only school systems but understanding the role of education in shaping social structures and influencing economic development. Professional associations were also founded including The Comparative Education Society in 1956, followed in 1961 by the Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE). National and international organisations, such as the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Organisations for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank, were also influential in the development of comparative education. The yearbooks were also large replace with academic journals, such as the Comparative Education Review, after the War.

Historically, the IOE has been one of the leading centers of comparative and international education research since the 1930s, and has employed many important figures in the field, including Brian Holmes, Joseph Lauwerys, and Nicholas Hans. Today the Institute offers a MA in Comparative Education and the subject is taught by academic staff across the Institute.

For guidance on how to use our dedicated online catalogue to browse and search archives, manuscripts and records see the archives home page .

Archive collections

Brian Holmes, Professor of Comparative Education at the IOE, 1975-1985, was instrumental in the development of a number of national and international comparative education societies. His papers, 1950s-1980s, include unpublished writings; off-prints, papers and articles; correspondence with colleagues; and files about the activities of comparative education societies. This collection is not online yet. Contact us for more information. (RefNo: BH)

The British Section of the Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE). In 1997 it merged with the British Association of Teachers and Researchers in Overseas Education (BATROE) to form the British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE). The Association encourages the growth of comparative and international studies by organising conferences, visits and publications. The collection contains the administrative papers of the Association, 1977-1996. (RefNo: CES)

Comparative Education Society of Europe (CESE) was founded in 1961. The purpose of the international organisation is to encourage and promote comparative and international studies in education. The collection contains the administrative papers of the Society, 1978-1991. This collection is not online yet. Contact us for more information. (RefNo: CEE)

Sir Fred Clarke was an influential figure in the development of colonial and comparative education. He held a number of posts in teacher education and university departments across the world. He was Advisor to Overseas Students at the IOE from 1935, and was Director of the Institute from 1936-1945. His papers, 1899-1962, include; publications, papers relating to his work in South Africa and Canada, correspondence, papers relating to broadcasting work, subject files, on various topics including comparative education and scrapbooks about Clarke's career. (RefNo: FC)

Joseph Lauwerys, Professor of Comparative Education at the IOE from 1947-1970, held many visiting professorships around the world and travelled as a consultant and observer of educational conditions. He was involved in many organisations for promoting international co-operation and understanding and comparative education. His papers, 1920s-1980s, include personal and working papers reflecting many aspects his career, including international co-operation and understanding and comparative education; material about post-War reconstruction and the founding of UNESCO; files relating to overseas visits and tours; and papers on the educational in different countries. This collection is not online yet. Contact us for more information. (RefNo: JL)

Nicholas Hans worked on the Yearbook of Education, 1920-1939. He was appointed as lecturer at King's College, 1946, becoming a Reader in Comparative Education in 1948. He collaborated with Joseph Lauwerys at the IOE in supervising higher degree students and arranging overseas trips. His papers, 1906-1969, include drafts of published works and manuscripts of unpublished essays and other writings; notebooks; correspondence; teaching notes papers relating the Russian Revolution. (RefNo: NH)

Margaret Read was an early woman social anthropologist and applying social anthropology and ethnography to the education and health problems of developing countries. She was the head of the Department for Education in Tropical Areas at the IOE, 1940-1955. Her papers, 1900-1982, include papers regarding her travels and overseas tours from 1919 and her writings. (RefNo: MR)

Founded in 1921 as the New Education Fellowship, this international organisation central focus is on child-centred education, social reform through education, world citizenship and international understanding. The collection contains papers regarding the activities of the Fellowship, 1921-[1995], including correspondence with branches around the world and international conferences. (RefNo: WEF)

The records of the IOE cover every aspect of the business of the Institute including its contribution to comparative and international education. The Institute collection also contains the records of the Colonial Department and its successors, (RefNo: IE/COL); Department of International and Comparative Education; biographies of staff at the Institute including those involved in comparative and international education, (RefNo: IE/PC/1); publications by staff on comparative and international education, (RefNo: IE/PUB). (RefNo: IE)

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