Current and future status of research in comparative education

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The status of Comparative Education research: Ontologies and Measurement epistemologies
The purpose of this session is to present five views how the results of a synthesize in the current state of knowledge about research results and methods in comparative education research to answer the question, “What is comparative education about and where is it going”? The answers are given by researchers who have spent a significant amount of time writing and conducting studies of comparative research. The authors of the papers represent different approaches to applying comparative education research methods and each has insight into the status of the field from a different point of view. The hope of the presenters is that by increasing the amount of communication between researchers with differing philosophical and political beliefs that differences among the field of comparative international education may be reduced in the future.
The speakers were drawn from a project in which over 50 researchers in 13 nations participated in an effort to discuss the quality of comparative education research, to apply different research methods to particular educational research questions, and to evaluate the progress of the field of comparative education. The project leaders found that differences observed among comparative education authors is stark. Perhaps, the great variety of epistemological beliefs ranging from empirical positivism to postmodernism (challenging the premises of positivism) exists because the field is selectively occupied by scholars who have learned that a broad view of the nature of knowledge is necessary to conduct research across cultures. The remarks of the panelists will range from examples of methodological approaches to broad theoretical frameworks.
Variety and change in methods
Researchers in comparative education not only hold a variety of philosophical stances but also differ in knowledge of research methods. The large variety of research methods found in comparative education journals occurs because of differences in purposes, in sources of funding, and in selection of the receiving audience. The content of a research project may be intended for academic theorists, practitioners seeking advice about how to apply rigorous educational techniques for improving practice, or for guiding international and local governmental education programs.
Moreover, the methods of research are continually evolving adding variety while allowing greater access to multiple cultural settings. Technological improvements in the management of information also have reduced the difficulty in aggregating large amounts of information. While modern research methods remove boundaries for cross-national research they do not by themselves reduce the intellectual demands of describing and explaining the common or unique educational experiences. The growth of research results of education throughout all parts of the globe increase the challenges to researchers of finding common threads of human behavior while acknowledging individual unique cultural patterns. The papers in this session provide examples of how modern methods have changed research directions and results.
The introduction of government support for large-scale comparative surveys in many countries in the 1960’s brought significant change in the potential for comparing characteristics of students, teachers, and systems across many countries. By 2015, over half of all countries in the world have been engaged in cross-national comparative studies, representing 87 percent of the world population. The number and frequency of assessment of student performance has increased in countries of lower economic status as in all other countries. Whether knowledge about educational achievement or school management has increased because of the availability of extensive survey information about students will be addressed in this symposium.
The academic researchers that founded the large-scale studies expected that they would improve understanding of educational practices and the conditions that produce student achievement and that they would raise the quality of educational research (Husén, 1983). Two papers presented in this session give an example of their use and examine whether this hope has been achieved or whether the production of large-scale massive studies has introduced new methodological, philosophical, and political issues. The presentation by Carnoy reviews the expectations of the originators and takes a realistic view of what has been accomplished with these studies and what might be done in the future to make them more useful. The presentation by Smith applies analysis of the recent PISA 2015 survey to seeking an understanding of differences in the development of student interest in the study of science and technology across the globe. Her paper demonstrates the power and limitations of survey analysis of answer major policy questions about implementing changes in educational practices.
By necessity, large-scale comparative studies apply a common framework of learning and teaching across diverse cultures; while ethnographic and case-study researchers adopt epistemological approaches that accepts diversity of learning and teaching methods as a given and adopt methods for describing them within their own context. Neither approach has become dominant. An analysis of publication trends in the type of methods used in publications of comparative education find that a very significant growth occurred in both empirical and in qualitative methods of research over the past 2 decades (Suter to be presented).
A Broad view of theory in comparative education
The paper presented by Denman reviews the history and approaches of many of the significant approaches to the study of international comparisons. His paper rejects the limited nature of survey analysis yet he calls for a need for finding greater agreement in the observations and conclusions researched in the field. Denman also seeks ways to integrate empirical observations of education with other forms of observation.
Conclusion
Researchers, educators, and psychometricians are concerned with establishing the validity and meaning of cognitive assessments designed in one culture and collected in another. The assessments are based on student reports of what they know about a field of study (such as mathematics, science, reading, or geography). Each author reviews a particular aspect of the growth of these surveys with different analytical points of view, but all acknowledge that the methods of study have evolved over time in response to both policy needs and growth in research knowledge about the measurement and practices of student assessment.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Larry Suter, University of Michigan

Individual Presentations

• Publication trends in Comparative Education: 1960 to 2015 - Larry Suter, University of Michigan

• Where Does Comparative Education Go Now? - Martin Carnoy, Stanford University

• Critical challenges in approaches and experience in comparative education research - Brian D. Denman, University of New England

• Paradoxes and international comparison: Measurement and meaning - John Ainley, ACER

• What can international comparative tests tell us about the future supply of highly skilled STEM workers?" - Emma Smith, University of Warwick, UK

Discussant

• Gustavo E. Fischman, Arizona State University