Approaches and methods in comparative education research are of obvious importance, but do not always receive adequate attention. This book contributes new insights within the longstanding traditions of the field. A particular feature is the focus on different units of analysis. Individual chapters compare places, systems, times, cultures, values, policies, curricula and other units. These chapters are contextualised within broader analytical frameworks which identify the purposes and strengths of the field. The book includes a focus on intra-national as well as cross-national comparisons, and highlights the value of approaching themes from different angles. The book will be of great value not only to producers of comparative education research but also to consumers who wish to understand more thoroughly the parameters and value of the field.

'Learning from Comparing' is a major two-volume study which reassesses the contribution of comparative educational research and theory to our understanding of contemporary educational problems and to our capacity to solve them. At a time when educational research is under attack on the grounds of ‘bias’ and ‘irrelevance’, and under pressure to address only those questions which are acceptable politically (as good a definition of bias as any), this is a serious attempt to bridge the worlds of research, policy and practice. The editors have put together a collection – in terms of both perspective and nationality – which ensures contrasting viewpoints on each topic.

International contributions exploring the internationalisation agenda in higher education, drawing together strategic and management issues, successful practice, giving an understanding of the new challenges.

Comparative Information Technology: Languages, Societies and the Internet, which is the fourth volume in the 12-volume series Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, offers a critique of the nexus between ICT and its impact on society, individuals and educational institutions. One of the most signification dimensions of globalisation has been the rapid development of information and communications technologies (ICTs). Our lives have been changed by this in numerous ways and the implications for education are en- mous. The ICTs have transformed the linguistic, cognitive and visual dim- sions of human communication, as well as our perceptions of the self, and social identity in the global culture. The ICTs have facilitated the development of new dimensions of digital literacy, such as blogging and sms messaging. In this sense, cyberlanguage continues to evolve by borrowing and adapting familiar words, coining new expressions, and embracing particular styles (Gibbs & Krause, 2006, 2007). However, information technology can be both empowering and disempowering. Individuals use the Internet, notebooks, and their BlackBerries and communicate via email. If clothing is an extension of one’s skin, then the ICT has become an extension of our bodies. In a globalised world, linked through the Internet, a n- formed identity can lead to a multiplicity of identities, some contradictory to each other, and some taking place primarily in the virtual communities of cyberspace.

This volume aims to expand knowledge about the history of comparative education. It explores new scholarship on key actors and ways of knowing in the field. It aims to raise awareness on the positionality of historical narratives about this field of inquiry and offers a re-think of its histories. Since comparative education has always been embedded within a global field of power, what would the changing world order’s implications be for the institutional and intellectual histories of the field? This book offers diverse perspectives for re-theorising the histories of comparative education. It suggests casting a far-sighted and panoramic look at the field’s origins. The volume concludes with a puzzle for future work on a global history of comparative education. This book was originally published as a special issue of Comparative Education.

This volume explores the topics of adult learning and education through the specific lens of comparative research. The book is divided into four chapters each of which comprises an analytical essay followed by an anthology of readings from a selection of key texts. These are chosen to illustrate different conceptual and empirical approaches from varying perspectives in different countries. The book is the second of a series dedicated to adult learning and education and developed under the auspices of the ESRALE (European Studies and Research in Adult Learning and Education) project. Its companion books are: Vanna Boffo, Paolo Federighi, Ekkehard Nuissl, Empirical Research Methodology in Adult Learning and Education- Authors and Texts and Simona Sava, Petr Novotny (eds.), Researches in Adult Learning and Education: The European Dimension.

The globalization of educational policy has become a popular, if not ubiquitous, phenomenon among educational policymakers across the world. It has led many observers to conclude that educational systems in different parts of the world are converging towards one international (neo-liberal) model of school reform. This practice of borrowing and lending school reforms requires a serious examination of the politics and the economics of transnational educational transfer. In this volume, Steiner-Khamsi and her colleagues provide an in-depth empirical and critical examination of the practice of global educational policy. Contributors question the value of importing and exporting educational policies, analyze who benefits from these arrangements, and test the effectiveness of adapting one country's policies in other (often quite culturally distinct) countries. The book investigates how global policies have been implemented locally, and examines the extent to which they work in diverse locales. teiner-Khamsi and her colleagues also examine the role and practices of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), multilateral organizations, and the World Bank in fostering how educational policies are disseminated and adapted across national and cultural boundaries.

This is the first full study of non-formal education on an international scale since the 1980s. The book describes the emergence of the concept in the context of development and educational reform. It traces the debate about non-formal education from its origins in 1968 to the mid 1980s, and looks at the issues that this debate raised. It then describes a number of programmes in different parts of the world which call themselves ‘non-formal’, pointing out the wide range of different views about what is and what is not non-formal. Rogers asks whether we should drop the term altogether or try to reconceptualise it in terms of flexible schooling or participatory education. This is an important new book by a well-established author. It deals with complex issues, but is written in a clear style. It contains an important new analysis of the development paradigms in which the controversies surrounding non-formal education grew up, and which shaped its purpose and impacts. The author’s call for a reformulation of the concept will find echoes not only in developing societies, but also in Western circles, where the language of non-formal education is being used increasingly within the context of lifelong learning. The book grew out of the teaching of non-formal education in which Professor Rogers has been engaged for the last 20 years. It is intended for teachers and students in comparative education courses in higher education institutions, and for researchers and others with an interest in the field.

The Springer International Handbook of Educational Development in Asia Pacific breaks new ground with a comprehensive, fine-grained and diverse perspective on research and education development throughout the Asia Pacific region. In 13 sections and 127 chapters, the Handbook delves into a wide spectrum of contemporary topics including educational equity and quality, language education, learning and human development, workplace learning, teacher education and professionalization, higher education organisations, citizenship and moral education, and high performing education systems. The Handbook is grounded in specific Asia Pacific contexts and scholarly traditions, using unique country-specific narratives, for example, Vietnam and Melanesia, and socio-cultural investigations through lenses such as language identity or colonisation, while offering parallel academic discourse and analyses framed by broader policy commentary from around the world.

​This edited volume explores how primary school teachers create rich opportunities for science learning, higher order thinking and reasoning, and how the teaching of science in Australia, Germany and Taiwan is culturally framed. It draws from the international and cross-cultural science education study EQUALPRIME: Exploring quality primary education in different cultures: A cross-national study of teaching and learning in primary science classrooms. Video cases of Year 4 science teaching were gathered by research teams based at Edith Cowan University, Deakin University, the Freie Universität Berlin, the National Taiwan Normal University and the National Taipei University of Education. Meetings of these research teams over a five year period at which data were shared, analysed and interpreted have revealed significant new insights into the social and cultural framing of primary science teaching, the complexities of conducting cross-cultural video-based research studies, and the strategies and semiotic resources employed by teachers to engage students in reasoning and meaning making. The book’s purpose is to disseminate the new insights into quality science teaching and how it is framed in different cultures; methodological advancements in the field of video-based classroom research in cross-cultural settings; and, implications for practice, teacher education and research. “The chapters (of this book) address issues of contemporary relevance and theoretical significance: embodiment, discursive moves, the social unit of learning and instruction, inquiry, and reasoning through representations. Through all of these, the EQUALPRIME team manages to connect the multiple cultural perspectives that characterise this research study. The ‘meta-reflection’ chapters offer a different form of connection, linking cultural and theoretical perspectives on reasoning, quality teaching and video-based research methodologies. The final two chapters offer connective links to implications for practice in teacher education and in cross-cultural comparative research into teaching and learning. These multiple and extensive connections constitute one of the books most significant accomplishments. The EQUALPRIME project, as reported in this book, provides an important empirical base that must be considered by any system seeking to promote sophisticated science learning and instructional practices in primary school classrooms. By exploring the classroom realisation of aspirational science pedagogies, the EQUALPRIME project also speaks to those involved in teacher education and to teachers. I commend this book to the reader. It offers important insights, together with a model of effective, collegial, collaborative inter-cultural research. It will help us to move forward in important ways”. Professor David Clarke, Melbourne University