Problematizing the Promise of Comparative Research for Policy Making: Cross-reading Cross-cultural Data of Three Nordic Research Projects

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday I)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Role of comparative studies in education policy

Proposal

In the recent years, comparative methods in education research have been gaining increasing popularity. This growing interest has been proposed to be a result of larger global reorganization of world space where education no longer can be considered a purely national good and the education politics only a question of national politics and policymaking. (Crossley, 2002; Nóvoa & Yariv-Mashal, 2003).

As comparative methods gain popularity, also critical voices have increased along with this development. Comparative studies in the field of education have been criticized for being largely ranking list based, hence superficial and providing distorted still-picture of reality. (Kauko &al, 2012; Novoa & Yariv-Mashal, 2003; Simola & Rinne 2010) In the beginning of the new millennium, Nóvoa and Yariv-Mashal (2003) went even further in their critique. They claim that as the comparative education studies gained heightened interest and popularity, the interest to the field seemed to ultimately stem from political interests in need of legitimacy.

In the education policy making of today, it has indeed become a trend to legitimize decisions with comparative data (Lingard & al, 2012; Nóvoa & Yariv-Mashal 2003; Wiseman 2006). This seems to be the case particularly in situations where justification is needed for introducing or accelerating reforms on a national level (Steiner-Khamsi, 2004:4). Hence, cross-border information has never been so important to the national decision-makers, state Lawn and others (2011: 18).

The Nordic countries are often seen as one cultural and political territory. Such view is based on the idea that these countries, in addition to their partly common history, share the same values of welfare society, democracy, trust, equality and social justice (Delhey & Newton, 2005; Jacobsson, Laegreid & Pedersen, 2003). This notion of socio-political and historical similarities between the Nordic nation-states is sometimes presented to better enable comparative research between them. These comparisons typically aim at the creation of best practices and the construction of hierarchies through ranking lists.

In this paper, we aim to analyze and problematize some of the methodological and epistemological issues related to comparative research for policymaking purposes in Nordic education settings. The analysis is based on our individual doctoral projects, carried out in the Nordic Centre of Excellence JustEd (2014-2018). The focus of this Centre was on educational research in the Nordic countries with an explicit interest in creating comparative knowledge for the means of Nordic policy-making.

Our projects present a wide range of methodological approaches and interests in the educational research field. Volmari’s research deals with higher education policy and politics with a special interest in how national and cross-national data is used in political decision-making in the Nordic countries. Helakorpi analyses current policies and practices that aim to promote the education of Roma and Traveller minorities in Finland, Sweden and Norway. From’s ethnographic research focuses on the spatial implications of minority language policies in education in Finland and Sweden.

In this paper, the notion of comparability in policy research will be critically discussed using these projects as examples. The paper stems from our shared experience of the pressure of making comparative research that is easily applicable to policymaking and our negotiations with these expectations. In the course of our research projects we have come to question whether there are such things as 'best practices’? Is comparing through ranking solutions to good and bad ones possible or even desirable? And if we answer 'no’ to these questions, what then really is and can be the use and promise of comparative education as a method of inquiry?


References

Crossley, M. 2002. Comparative and international education: contemporary challenges, reconceptualization and new directions for the field, CICE online journal, 4 (2), www. tc.columbia.edu/ice

Delhey, J. & Newton, K. 2005. Predicting Cross-National Levels of Trust: Global Patterns or Nordic Exceptionalism? European Sociological Review, 21 (4), 311-327.

Jacobsson, B. & Laegreid, P. &Pedersen, O. 2003. Europeanization and Transnational States: Comparing Nordic Central Governments. Milton Park: Routledge, Taylor & Frances.

Kauko, J., Varjo, J., Kalalahti, M., Sahlström, F.& Simola, H. 2012. Koulutuspolitiikan dynamiikat vertailussa. Kasvatus 5/2012. pp. 488-501.

Lawn, M., Rinne, R. & Grek, S. 2011. Changing spatial and social relations in Europe. Ozga, J., Dahler-Larsen, P. Segerholm, C. and Simola, H. 2011. Fabricating Quality in Europe: Data and governance in Europe. Routledge. New York. 11-18.

Lingard, B., Creagh, S. & Vass.G. 2012. Education policy as numbers: data categories and two Australian cases of misrecognition. Journal of Education Policy, 27:3. May 2012: 315-333.

Nóvoa, A.& Yariv-Mashal, T. 2003. Comparative research in education: A mode of governance or a historical journey? Comparative education, 39 (4), 423-439.

Simola, H. & Rinne, R. 2010. Kontingenssi ja koulutuspolitiikka: vertailevan tutkimuksen teoreettisia edellytyksiä etsimässä. Kasvatus 4/2010. pp. 316-330.

Steiner-Khamsi, G. 2004. Globalization in Education: Real or Imagined? Steiner-Khamsi, G. (eds.), 2004. The Global Politics of Educational Borrowing and Lending. (pp.1-6) New York: Teachers College Press.

Wiseman, A.W. 2010. The Uses of Evidence for Educational Policymaking: Global Contexts and International Trends. Review in Education. Vol. 43: 1-24.

Authors

• Tuuli From, University of Helsinki

• Saija Volmari, University of Helsinki

• Jenni Helakorpi, University of Helsinki