Introduction to Comparative and International Education

Jennifer Marshall

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781526471208
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book introduces major themes surrounding comparative and international education, giving you a nuanced understanding of key debates, and thinkers, and the tools necessary to conduct comparisons using secondary sources. Social, economic, historical, and cultural factors are examined in order to investigate the varied contexts in which education takes place around the globe. Fully updated throughout, this second edition includes: A new ?Key concepts? feature explaining essential ideas and principles
Additional case studies from non-Western education systems
Updated statistical data highlighting educational and demographic trends This is essential reading for students on undergraduate Education Studies degrees, and for similar courses covering comparative and international education. Jennifer Marshall is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Derby.

Part 1 Comparative Education

Chapter 1 An introduction to comparative education

This chapter explores:

• what comparative education is;
• how the field has developed over the years;
• the purpose of comparative education;
• who compares;
• the challenges of undertaking comparative research.

Activity 1.1 Defining terms

Before beginning this chapter, write down a definition of comparative education. At the end of the chapter, reflect on your definition. Is comparative education what you thought? How might this be similar to and different from international education?

Comparative education is often used interchangeably with international education. While these two fields certainly overlap, it can be argued that they are two distinct areas of study. There has been a long history of debate pertaining to the identity of comparative and international education, often called ‘twin’ fields (Bray, 2010), but what exactly is comparative education and how is it different from international education? This chapter aims to explain the nature and purpose of comparative education.

Historical development of comparative education

In order to define what the field is today, an understanding of the history shaping it is important. Many contemporary academics argue over the importance of understanding the historical development of comparative education in order to appreciate just how far the field has come from its earliest roots. Not only is there disagreement as to the definition of the twin fields, but disparity also exists in identifying their historical roots. How far back does comparative education go? When did it emerge as a distinct field of study?

Noah and Eckstein (1969) claim that the historical development of comparative education can be identified through five distinct stages, each with its own aims. The first stage is often referred to as ‘travellers’ tales’, stories that were brought back from foreign travel and were generally descriptive in nature. When this first stage begins is less clear but for Noah and Eckstein it pre-dates the nineteenth century. Some writers go back as far as ancient times, citing examples from the Greeks and Romans and in particular how they admired the ‘discipline of Spartan education’ (Crossley and Watson, 2003, p. 12).

According to Phillips (2000), there was a large group of British travellers who fell into Noah and Eckstein’s first stage. They visited countries such as Germany out of ‘cultural and general curiosity’ and they wrote with ‘varying degrees of sophistication’ (Phillips, 2000, p. 49). At this time, these tales did not systematically compare or analyse educational practice so have been dismissed by many scholars. However, others (see Rust et al., 2009) have asserted that while these tales may have been descriptive they had much value and have been harshly judged by those who have a narrow view as to what counts as scholarly activity.

Activity 1.2 Travellers’ tales

Have you ever travelled to another country and come back with an education-related story to share? Or do you have friends who are from another country? Have they told you about education in their own country? Why would or wouldn’t this be classified as research?

The second stage described by Noah and Eckstein (1969) begins in the nineteenth century. This phase coincides with the rise of national education systems in Europe. During the 1800s countries such as France, Germany and Great Britain were establishing national systems of schooling which eventually became free and universal by the end of the century. Many policy-makers had great interest in the organisation and practice of education in other countries in order to help them devise their own. Noah and Eckstein (1969) argue that the work conducted in this stage was still very similar to the travellers’ tales in previous years. Many of the writings during this time were ‘encyclopedic descriptions of foreign school systems’ (Noah and Eckstein, 1969, p. 5) and subjective in nature. The purpose of these foregin visits was to learn in order to help improve conditions in their home countries (Phillips, 2000).

The third stage occurred around the middle of the nineteenth century and is still characterised by the accumulation of information in an encyclopaedic manner. However, Noah and Eckstein (1969) suggest that this exchange of scholars, students and publications was in the interest of promoting international understanding rather than in the interest of advancing one’s own educational interests.

The fourth stage begins around the end of the nineteenth century. In this stage, a social science approach was beginning to develop as ‘studies of foreign schooling became to a considerable extent studies of national character and the institutions that help form it’ (Noah and Eckstein, 1969, p. 6). The recognition of the role of education in shaping society became important in this stage, as did the idea of cause and effect and that national character determines education.

The fifth stage occurs after the First World War and coincides with the rise in statistical techniques in the social sciences. The adoption of quantitative methods after the Second World War and the empirical orientation of the social sciences began to reshape comparative education (Noah and Eckstein, 1969).

Activity 1.3 Historic stages

Think about how comparative education has developed using Noah and Eckstein’s five stages. Can you find any similarities between them and your own academic development? What criticisms can you think of regarding these five stages? Do you think the field developed in a linear fashion?

Similarly, in his classic book Comparative Method in Education, Bereday (1964) writes of phases in the history of comparative education. However, for Bereday the first phase begins in the nineteenth century and lasts for about a hundred years. Like many other scholars (e.g. Green, 2003; Acosta and Centeno, 2011; Phillips and Schweisfurth, 2014), Bereday believes that the Frenchman Marc-Antoine Jullien, or Jullien de Paris as he is also known, was ‘the first scientifically minded comparative educator’ (Bereday, 1964, p. 7). Jullien’s aim was to improve French education by identifying the best schools in Europe and examining how they were organised, the teaching methods they used and what successful improvements they had implemented. Many writers in the field have called him the ‘father’ of comparative education as he was the first to use the term ‘comparative education’ (Crossley and Watson, 2003) and to use formal models of analysis (Gautherin, 1993). In his book Esquisse et vues préliminaires d’un ouvrage sur l’éducation comparée or Sketch and Preliminary Views on Comparative Education (published in 1817), unlike his predecessors, Jullien provided a systematic approach to collecting information on education in Europe by using simple questionnaires (Green, 2003). According to Gautherin (1993), by using the comparative method successfully employed in anatomy, Jullien was trying to advance the science of education. Although his work was largely neglected throughout his lifetime, the first course on the science of education was officially introduced at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1883 (Masemann, 2006).

Bereday called this first phase in comparative education the period of ‘borrowing’because the purpose of comparing was about taking the best practices from one country and transplanting them to another (Bereday, 1964).

Activity 1.4 Educational borrowing

What practices do you think early writers in the field reported on? Do you think borrowing these practices and transplanting them in your own country is effective? Why, or why not?

For Bereday (1964), the second phase, called the period of ‘prediction’, occurred during the first half of the twentieth century and wa...