comparative education society of nepal sharing series – 2 comparative education research: a...

Comparative Education Society of Nepal

Sharing series – 2

Comparative Education Research: A Perspective

Mahesh Nath ParajuliMay 2015

Mahesh Parajuli 2015 2

This presentation

Introduction on comparative perspective

and comparative education research

Arguments:

need for bringing localized perspective in

comparative education/development

studies for theorizing based on local

processes

need for contributing towards fulfilling

cultural gap in education


Comparative perspective

Comparison for understanding and sharing

Understanding strengths and weaknesses

societies, nations, cultures, processes

comparison across time and space Realize the variations across and within

cultures and nations Comparative perspective – expressed or

implicit


Comparative perspective

Long tradition of comparative perspective our parables and fables (Panchatantra)

use comparative perspective through

metaphors Metaphor – the story of snake and rope nachna najanne aangan tedho song – ‘himal, pahad, taraiko desh hamro

sansarmai ramro’

Vedic text - the concept of prakriti and

purusha illustrate comparative perspective


Comparative research

Comparative research is for

finding pattern, trends, categorization

identifying problems, problem areas

finding solutions of those problems

seeing effects of programs

contextualization – increasingly in

practice

unique perspective – being called for


Comparative research – who compares?

Parents and students – for a better place Community people – for better education Teachers – for improving quality Educational managers – for efficiency,

quality System people – for economic, social,

political enhancement Academics – for knowledge building International – for efficiency, enhancement Implicit purpose of these actors?


Comparative concerns

Are societies comparable? Are data comparable? Can there be common understandings on

constructs, variables/themes? Individual or team of researchers?

The solution: standardization of variables/

themes and data Still problem, because of contextual

variations


Comparative education – a field of study

French educator – first comparativist, 1817 Different understanding

by different people in different areas

Differences are mainly on area/levels of comparison units of comparison methods of comparison

A debate of little value?


Comparative education – three periods

Early phase – 19th century

description and comparison

Second phase – first half of 20th century

looking for social causes trying to explain

educational processes and phenomenon

Third phase – second half of 20th century

theory building, analytical,

methodological strengthening (Bereday, 1964, as cited in Bray, Adamson, & Mason, 2014)


Comparative education – five periods

Travellers’ tale – 19th century

Description phase – early 19th century

Encyclopaedic phase – later 19th century

Beginning of identifying factors contributing

national education system – 20th century

Explaining the relationship between

education and society – 20th century (Noah & Eckstein, 1969, as cited in Bray, Adamson, & Mason,

2014)


Comparative education – periodization?

Questions on periodization – how

meaningful?

Characterization is fine but some concerns

demarcation of periods is not clear

blurring of periods

replication of one period by the new one

is not clear

all those periods could still be there


Comparative methods

No different methods for comparative

studies International comparative studies - large

scale, cross-national surveys are common National or international

well-structured, standardized secondary, primary data descriptive, correlational, explanatory multi-stage: first case, then survey; first

survey, then case; some other

combination


Comparative methods

Contextualized approaches are also

powerful and considered important as independent study as part of big cross-national study

Emphasis on uniqueness or specificity and

on exploring the reasons, meanings,

implications searching for multiple explanations

Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary


Comparative research

Comparative research for bringing

comparative perspective

Used in

political studies

social and cultural studies

developmental studies

educational studies


Comparative education – a field of study

Comparative education

comparison of national systems of

education

International education

describing and analysing situations in one

or more countries and making proposals

for one or more countries

International development / development

studies

changing socio-economic and political

context in developing countries



Increasing international understanding through diversity of cross-national and cross-cultural studies/activities

Emphasis on examining and explaining educational systems and cultural practices

Emphasis on contextualized understandings of change with development aims of (eg) poverty reduction

Extended dialogue between ideas and evidence (Ragin)

International education


Development studies

Source: Evans & Robinson-Pant, 2010


Comparative educational research

“Comparative education is usually regarded

as predominantly theoretical and research-

based whereas international education

makes practical use of comparative data”

(Leach & Preston, 1999).

comparative as theoretical

international as more practical

A distinction not necessary to make and

even blurred


Comparative educational research

Research with the purpose of, if patterns

and trends are there in educational

processes, and phenomenon; and

explaining them

theory building is often the focus

building theory on the basis of what is

happening

borrowing from theory to explain what is

happening

Comparative cubes


Time

Tim

e

Source: Bray & Thomas, 1995, as cited in Bray, Adamson, & Mason, 2014


Comparative education – is it a clear field? A question often asked

comparative education a clear field of

study?

what contribution?

bringing some pieces together and by

seeing their similarities and differences?

same thing on international education

High popularity of comparative /

international education journals and many

publications reject this blame


Comparative education in Nepal

Comparative perspective has been there

not in an explicit manner

Practice of carrying out education and other

research/survey across different

geographic and socioeconomic groups and

presenting data/analysis on these bases

International education and other studies

with Nepal as one of the study country


Comparative education in Nepal

Hugh B Wood, 1965, with ‘Comparative’ in

title, probably the first such work

An article with comparative perspective,

2010, in Compare (40th year issue), by M

Parajuli, MWagley - in an international

journal

Comparative works (by Nepali and non-

Nepali writers) in national/international

comparative conferences, journals, books




(CESON) in 2013 – the first in Nepal

a professional organization

Understanding how education, a key social

process, interacts with other social processes

like development, politics, culture, economy,

etc.

Develop comparative perspectives in

education aiming to contribute to social

transformation through knowledge building

and sharing



Website – CESON Forum

CESON sharing sessions

Some research works

One international symposium in 2014

Planning for one national conference in 2016

Aiming to organize CESA conference in 2018

discourse and debate

knowledge building

policy contribution


Challenges and opportunities

Globalization

growing marketization

blurring of national boundaries

internationalization

Internet and computing revolution

Access to data and information

Growing comparative research and

publication

Increasing multi-disciplinarity


Challenges and opportunities

World is facing several challenges

poor life quality

inequity, discrimination, and exclusion

war and conflict

deteriorating physical environment

How comparative education research

address these concerns?

Research and theorizing – localized and

grand


Localizing the comparative perspective

The need for localizing the research

local everyday perspective and cultural

values

Theorizing on the basis of local research

Contributing towards social justice and

transformation

The need for looking into historical, local

treasure of knowledge and wisdom



Fulfilling the gap – the cultural gap

in education

in development

Highly diverse people and their context

Unbelievably isomorphic schooling and

development policy and practice

Culturally incompatible schooling/education

and development



Building synergy with international

perspective

Agency and actor oriented perspective

willingness to act upon and contest

capability to build

etworking

Developing local comparativists for

developing localized frame and perspective


References

Bray, M., Adamson, B., & Mason, M. (2014). Comparative

education research: Approaches and methods. Hong Kong:

Comparative Education Research Center and Springer.

Evans, K. & Robinson-Pant, A. (2010). Compare: Exploring a 40-

year journey through comparative education and

international development. Compare: A Journal of

Comparative and International Education. 40(6), 693-710.

Parajuli, M.N. & Wagley, M. P. (2010). Comparative education

and development: Reflections from Nepal. Compare: A

Journal of Comparative and International Education. 40(6),

835-840.

Wood, H.B. (1965). The development of education in Nepal -

Studies in comparative education. Bulletin 1965, No 5, Office

of Education, Washington, D.C. ERIC document no ED

164375.

comparative education society of nepal sharing series – 2 comparative education research: a...

Documents

comparative perspective

mahesh parajuli

education slide

comparative concerns

implicit slide

th century description

th century beginning

th century encyclopaedic