Methods of Comparative Education
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Scientific method of Comparative Analysis
George Bereday is considered one of the pioneers of comparative methods in education.
According to Kidd (1975), Bereday’s method is one of the best-known systematized approaches to comparative education, in which an educational system is viewed as part of a larger cultural context.
Bereday advised comparative educators to accustom themselves with the culture of the societies they wished to study and guard against their own cultural or personal biases.
Descriptive method in comparative education
In this stage, instructional data from various nations selected for the study is collected and presented using tables and graphs. The data should be presented in descriptive form to facilitate further analysis at later stages.
Interpretation method in comparative education
This stage involves an analysis of the facts using methods of different social sciences.
For example, the researcher could use perspectives from sociology to explain the varying attitudes of pupils towards social science studies.
Factors in the contextual background, such as historical, geographical, socioeconomic, and political factors, can be used to explain the issues that have shaped the educational system.
Juxtaposition method in comparative education
In this stage, preliminary comparisons of facts and findings, concepts and principles are used to classify data and process the data. The criteria for comparability are also set out during this stage.
Comparison method in comparative education
This is the final stage of Bereday’s comparative method and it involves a final fusion of data from other countries for the purpose of comparison and to derive plans for action. The step also involves hypothesis testing.
Methods and Methodologies in Comparative Education
- First Online: 25 March 2021
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- Joseph Zajda 41 &
- Val Rust 42
Part of the book series: Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research ((GCEP,volume 24))
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In this chapter we concentrate on methods of data collection; however, some consideration will be given to data analysis. When one decides on the methods of data collection, one is asking the following questions: What kind of information is being sought, from what sources, and under what circumstances? When one decides on the how to analyze the data, one is deciding how to make sense out of the data that has been collected. Methodology and theory are fundamental to the cognitive structure of any field of study (Creswell and Creswell 2018). Their nature and roles have generated a great deal of debate, both within the field of comparative education specifically and within academic community more generally. The purpose of this chapter is to examine how research strategies have evolved among comparative educators, who publish in research journals. The contextual backdrop for the discussion will be globalization, which has fundamentally ‘challenged the scope and nature of the field’ of comparative education (Crossley and Watson 2003). Whereas comparative education has defined itself as a field that focuses on national systems of education, globalization has multiplied the elements of a global culture while at the same time stimulating tremendous diversity at the local, community level (Zajda and Rust 2016a ; Zajda 2020a). We do not attempt to assess here how globalization has defined comparative education methods, but to provide insight as to how comparative education research reflects or does not reflect harmony with globalization.
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Much of this chapter is taken directly from an earlier published study by Val D Rust and some associates at UCLA. See Rust 2003a ; Rust et al. 2009 .
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The issue of incommensurability was first raised by Thomas Kuhn in reference to paradigms. Kuhn argued that a scientific revolution means one theory is replaced by another. Even though the new theory may use similar vocabulary, their meanings are changed to the point that people holding to one theory as apposed to the other are unable to communicate with each other.
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Zajda, J., Rust, V. (2021). Methods and Methodologies in Comparative Education. In: Globalisation and Comparative Education. Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, vol 24. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2054-8_4
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Descriptive method in comparative education. In this stage, instructional data from various nations selected for the study is collected and presented using tables and graphs. The data should be presented in descriptive form to facilitate further analysis at later stages. Interpretation method in comparative education
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 ...
In considering the methods of comparative education we might cite two leading British comparativists, Edmund King (1914-2002) and Brian Holmes (1920-93), as representative of polarised approaches to the possibilities. King was a classicist by origin, trained in the humanities and demonstrably a proficient linguist.
It shows comparative education concepts, methods and practices becoming socially embedded through spaces, places and taken-for-granted meanings, and offers a way of understanding 'how we think and why we seem obliged to think in certain ways' (Somers Citation 1995, 113).
been descriptive they had much value and have been harshly judged by ... in his classic book Comparative Method in Education, Bereday (1964) writes of phases in the history of comparative education. However, ... comparative education as he was the first to use the term 'comparative education' (Crossley & Watson, 2003) and to use formal ...
No other book has focused as systematically on comparative education research methods; This book considers issues and challenges associated with research involving many different units of comparison: place, systems, time, cultures, etc; First edition is widely adopted as textbook in the comparative education modules in various universities ...
Templeton sees comparative education as having had three developmental stages-descriptive and utilitarian (Griscom, Robbins, Mann, and Barnard) followed by integrative and problem- ... conclude comparative education is a method rather than a discipline. It is seen as a means by which one understands the forces shaping educational systems.
methods studies in comparative education. Based on journal articles, three different types of studies will be introduced, analysed and discussed. Core work by Ragin the comparative method: moving beyond quantitative and qualitative research will be used as a core guidance within this session. We will also work on research design and methods.
The major figures in comparative education have never limited themselves to static descriptive studies, simply noting similarities and differences between educational systems or practices, but have always moved to explanation or interpretation, and the identification 32 Introducing Comparative Education of recurring patterns or tendencies which ...
Abstract. 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 ...
And so far as methodology is concerned, comparative education may be considered a continuation of the study the history of education into the present. Since we live to-day in a which has been shaken by two wars and is passing through a variety. revolutions - political, economic, and technological - with their.
This chapter presents the historical approach to comparative education and discusses the methods of comparative education. During the last 15 or 20 years in particular, the application of the concepts and methods of such social sciences as sociology, economics, political science, and anthropology to the study of education has had considerable effects on the more traditional approaches to ...
Casual Comparative Method Definition: It is a type of descriptive approach since it describes conditions that already exist.It is a form of investigation in which the research has no direct control over independent variable as it's expression has already occurred or because they are essentially non manipulable.Casual comparative studies
Introduction. The year 2017 commemorated several significant moments in the intellectual histories of comparative education, which could be categorised into three 'epistemological benchmarks': positivism, relativism, and historical functionalism (Epstein 2008, 373). First, it marked the bicentenary of Marc-Antoine Jullien de Paris' 1817 ...
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 ...
This article is a slightly edited excerpt from a forthcoming book by David Phillips & Michele Schweisfurth: Comparative and International Education: an introduction to theory, method, and practice (Continuum, 2007). This part of the study rehearses some of the considerations of method in comparative studies in education.
Awolola (1986) identified eight approaches to the study of Comparative Education. They are: (a) Problem Approach or Thematic approach (b) Case study approach (c) Area study approach. (d) Historical approach (e) Descriptive approach (f) Philosophical approach.
Comparative Education Review iii Editorial Method and Methodology in Comparative Education The terms "method" and "methodology" have been so intertwined that it is difficult to sort them out in a meaningful way. And yet, it is crucial that we begin to do this in order to make better sense of the field of comparative education and its ...
As education came to be caught up in the drive to be more scientific the methodological debates shifted to issues of the social sciences. One of the main issues comparative education scholars such as Brian Holmes and George Bereday argued over was whether research should proceed inductively or deductively (Holmes 1984 #2, Bereday 1964 #5). The early scholars noted in the paragraph above took ...
Hall's topology of Comparative Education; Objectives of the Topic: After you have read this chapter, you should be able to; Objectives of the topics. The methods of Comparative Education i. Descriptive method ii. Historical method iii. Psychological method iv. Social method v. Quantitative and statistical method vi. Scientific approach vii.
tabular comparisons can be found in Comparative Method of Education and in articles in Comparative Education Review. 8) Figure I is an illustration of one such comparison, in this case a set of diagrams on Ghana 1956 Dahomey 1957-58 26- 26 24 University 0.002 per cent 24 - 22 22 20 Academic secondary 20-18 0 02 per cent 18 Academic Lycee 12 per ...
Originally published in 1981. Presented here is a coherent theory of Comparative Education research, based on the traditions and innovations established by such pioneers as Joseph Lauwerys and Nicholas Hans. From the author's substantive studies emerges a taxonomy for education based on Popper's critical dualism, and a way of analysing problems based on Dewey's reflective thinking and the ...
parative Education has to apply the methods of sociology and mathe-. matical statistics, in its psychological application the methods of science, and in its historical background the methods of historical research. The. first question to be answered is whether the historical approach has use methods different from the scientific approach.