Comparative Education Studies:

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Comparative Education Studies Current Trends
around the World Mark Bray Director,
UNESCO-IIEP President, WCCES
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Introduction

• My own background and perspective
• UNESCO International Institute for Educational
  Planning (IIEP)
• World Council of Comparative Education Societies
  (WCCES)

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• United Nations Educational, Scientific and
  Cultural Organization
• Headquarters in Paris, and with global network of
  regional bureaus, cluster and national offices
• Established 1945

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UNESCOs Education-Sector Institutes

• International Bureau of Education (IBE) Geneva,
  Switzerland
• UNESCO Institute for Education (UIE) Hamburg,
  Germany
• International Institute for Educational Planning
• Institute for Information Technologies in
  Education (IITE) Moscow, Russia
• International Institute for Higher Education in
  Latin America the Caribbean (IESALC) Caracas,
  Venezuela
• International Institute for Capacity-Building in
  Africa (IICBA) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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The IIEP

• Created in 1963 on an innovative model
• 100 staff
• headquartered in Paris
• Buenos Aires branch opened 1997

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Three main domains of IIEP work

• Training
• Research
• Operational activities

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• Website
• www.unesco.org\iiep
• www.iipe-buenosaires.org.ar

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Enrolment Rates
The WCCES and its Member Societies

• Founded 1970
• Comparative International Education Society
  (CIES) (USA)
• Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE)
• Japan Comparative Education Society (JCES)
• Comparative International Education Society of
  Canada (CIESC)
• Korean Comparative Education Society (KCES)

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Enrolment Rates
The WCCES and its Member Societies

• Now 35 societies
• 27 national and sub-national
• 6 regional
• 2 language-based

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Enrolment Rates
WCCES Activities

• World Congresses, every 3 years
• 1998 South Africa (Africa)
• 2001 Korea (Asia)
• 2004 Cuba (Latin America)
• 2007 Bosnia Herzegovina (Europe)

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Enrolment Rates
WCCES Activities

• 13th World Congress
• 3-7 September 2007

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Balances and Opportunities in the Operation of a
Global Body

• WCCES Membership
• Some regions are better represented than others
• Location of WCCES Meetings
• The locations of meetings influence which
  societies can attend, and so whose voices are
  heard

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The evolving field of comparative education

• Changes over time
• The field is making important progress, but
  needs further strengthening and leadership

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• Comparative education scholars in different
  parts of the world have different focuses and
  emphases
• different themes for research
• different theoretical frameworks
• different countries (and other units) chosen for
  analysis

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Foci of Enquiry
Overlapping fields
Comparative Education
International Education
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Units of Analysis in Comparative Education

• Dominance of countries
• Also much focus on continents/world regions

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Units of Analysis in Comparative Education

• A cube for multilevel comparison

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A pair of benchmarks

• UK Journal
• Comparative Education

• 1977 special issue
• 2000/01
• millennial special issue
• follow-up special issue

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Some salient points

• Growth of the field
• Stronger optimism
• New tools, e.g. in information technology
• New themes, e.g. globalisation
• More varied and multi-level units of analysis

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Methodology and Focus in Comparative Education

• Heavily dominated by social sciences, and
  therefore influenced by shifts in paradigms.
• But limited use of social-science tools. Many
  studies based on literature review relatively
  few based on survey almost none based on
  experimental methods.

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Methodology and Focus in Comparative Education

• Qualitative studies more common than
  quantitative ones
• But different emphases in different parts of the
  world Comparative Educations

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Methodology and Focus in Comparative Education
Paulston (1997)
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Methodology and Focus in Comparative Education

• Plurality in the field partly arises from
  paradigmatic differences between different groups
  of scholars.
• Differences may be exacerbated when those
  scholars are from different countries and work in
  different languages.

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Conclusions

• Comparative education is an exciting field in
  which we can learn from each other
• Much needs to be done to improve quality of
  scholarship and to promote networking
• In this, we can each play a role!

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The end

• www.unesco.org/iiep
• www.hku.hk/cerc/wcces