'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.

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.

This two-volume compendium brings together leading scholars from around the world who provide authoritative studies of the old and new epistemic motifs and theoretical strands that have characterized the interdisciplinary field of comparative and international education in the last 50 years. It analyses the shifting agendas of scholarly research, the different intellectual and ideological perspectives and the changing methodological approaches used to examine and interpret education and pedagogy across different political formations, societies and cultures.

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. “An important contribution to comparative studies of education and educational politics.” —From the Foreword by Thomas S. Popkewitz “Steiner-Khamsi has established one of the major centers where cutting-edge work is being done on educational borrowing and lending. This book provides the richest textual evidence of this work in the context of globalization, and I give it my strongest endorsement.” —Val Rust, UCLA “An illuminating study that provides innovative theoretical insights on the impact of globalization in education.” —Nelly Stromquist, University of Southern California Contributors: Charles Tilly, Jürgen Schriewer, Carlos Martinez, David Phillips, Iveta Silova, Tali Yariv-Mashal, Carol Anne Spreen, Bernhard T. Streitwieser, William deJong-Lambert, Frances Vavrus, Thomas F. Luschei, Dana Burde, Phillip W. Jones, Gita Steiner-Khamsi

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.

This book is designed as a text on how to go about setting up and effectively running international research projects.

This edited collection was produced to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the journal Comparative Education, one of the most established and prestigious journals in the field. Each chapter was written by a leading scholar of comparative and international education. The collection marks a creative and critical engagement with some of the most important topics in contemporary comparative education, including ‘big data’, pedagogy, adult education, scholarly mobility, and gender. The theme of ‘silences’ connects the papers: while comparative education covers the breadth and depth of educational concerns, it has its own obsessions, but which themes do not receive the attention they deserve? This book will be of interest to anyone interested in the theory, method and practice of comparative education today or in its development over the past 50 years. It will be informative to all scholars and graduate students concerned with education in its global contexts. In addition, to those readers who situate themselves within the field of comparative and international education, it offers a unique perspective on this important area of inquiry and the activities, preoccupations, absences and communities within it. This book was originally published as a special issue of Comparative Education.

Editors Robert F. Arnove and Carlos Alberto Torres, along with new coeditor Stephen Franz, have assembled the key scholars in comparative education, bringing a new edition of their groundbreaking book. To be used in graduate courses in comparative education, the new edition re...

Comparative Education: The Dialectic of the Global and the Local, Third Edition brings together many of the outstanding scholars in the field of comparative and international education to provide new perspectives on the dynamic interplay of global, national, and local forces as they shape the functioning and outcomes of education systems in specific contexts. Various chapters in the book call for a rethinking of the nation-state as the basic unit for analyzing school-society relations; provide new ways of conceptualizing equality of educational opportunity and outcomes; call attention to the need to study social movements in relation to educational reform; emphasize the value of feminist, postcolonial, and culturally sensitive perspectives to comparative inquiry into the limitations as well as potential of education systems to contribute to individual development and social change; and provide detailed critical accounts of how various international financial and technical assistance agencies shape educational policy and practice in specific regions of the world.

In the newly emerging global economic order governments and policy makers are keen to seek ideas from other countries and recognise the importance of looking comparatively. This expansion of interest in comparative education brings new challenges for the discipline: research may be undertaken by non-specialists (by consultants and politicians or educationists from quite different backgrounds); the short lifespan of democratically elected governments may lend attraction to ‘quick-fix’ solutions; statistics and data may be decontextualised. Added to these challenges there is the worldwide proliferation of education providers outside state control and the transformation of teaching and learning brought about by the new information technology. This book rethinks the role of comparative education in the light of these changing circumstances and looks at the new opportunities they bring.