EDU604 Short Notes

Comparative Education (EDU 604)

Lesson No. 1

Defining Education; Sociological approaches; Comparative Education, Its scope and purpose. Education is very difficult to pin to a particular definition as it may be perceived from different angles. However, we can define is as a process through which an individual becomes integrated into his society, becomes a promoter of his societal culture, contributor to the development of his society and becomes an adult who will be able to stand on his own. There are three major sociological perspectives on education: Functionalism, Conflict theory, & Symbolic interactionalism. Making comparisons is a human nature, probably due to desire of knowing the relationship existing between, or among the things being compared. The study of Comparative Education (CE) allows the person involved to have a better understanding of the system of education within, and outside his own country. CE is a study of two or more education systems; a study of how philosophy, objectives, policy and practice of education in other countries influence the general development of education in a particular country. It explores how the development of education in the past, across the ages and continents, has influenced the development of education in particular countries. CE’s scope is extended to the purpose of education systems of the countries being studies, an investigation into the similarities as well as differences existing in the educational practices of the countries under investigation. Its purpose is to assist the learners to understand their education systems better; and to perfect national systems with modifications and change with the circumstances and local conditions would demand.

Lesson No. 2

Primary education planning; Quality of education; Equity. Comparative education offers several lessons related to education planning at different levels:

Primary education Countries which invest more in primary education develop at a faster pace but takes a long time to spread primary education and even more to increase literacy level in the country. The aims of primary education are not met if the curriculum is ruralized i.e related to agriculture in village settings.

School Quality: School does not contribute to learning unless education is of good quality. However, there are differences in how quality is defined. Quality needs to be measured both in terms of inputs –resources and outputs learning achievements.

Secondary education With increasing primary education, the pressure on secondary education has increased. The students should be allowed to move ahead with secondary education. However, vocationalizing secondary education is not always helpful.

University education There is no way to contain the demand for university education. Although universities aim to forecast and teach the skills that would be needed in future, such estimations are not very successful

Educational Financing: The public budget will never be able to bear the full cost of free public education. Hence different ways to fund public education need to sought. Private education assists the government in achieving its educational target and it needs to be encouraged.

Equity: Equality in education is an important goal but while provision of free primary education helps the poor, provision of free higher education most of the time benefit the wealthy. Public funds in education should be directed towards the needy population.

Lesson 3

Foundations of comparative and international education; Stages; Historical context; Rationale. Comparative and International education are two different disciplines but they are often taken as one because of their interlinks. While comparative education has its roots in travelers’ tales yet its formal beginnings can be traced from 1817, following Marc-Antoine Julien’s proposal, when an attempt was made for the first time to record educational statistics that later with the development of international organizations like UNESCO opened the avenues for cross country comparisons. The origins of International educational can be traced back to César Auguste Basset, another Frenchman, who in 1808 called for scholars to observe education outside France with the intention of making recommendations for the reform of the French education system. In both cases the aim was to bring home other systems of education, which was in most cases likely to fail because lesser attention was paid to sociocultural factors surrounding these schools. Comparative education has gone through 5 stages of historical development: i) travelers sharing tales of education in other places, ii) educational borrowing, iii) interest in documenting and understanding education in international perspective, iv) forces and factors shaping different national systems, v) interest in understanding the relationship between education and society. However, these stages are not discrete cut off points. There is evidence of their overlapping as well as their co-existence in current literature. After World War II, the field of comparative began to merit attention with the establishment of international bodies and an interest in rebuilding educational infrastructure. This time witnesses a number of research journals dedicated to comparative education and establishment of societies for work in this discipline. In 1956, the Comparative Education Society was formed in the USA, which was later renamed as Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) was the first of its kind. The establishment of numerous journals and societies in the discipline of CE led to debates, around methodology and focus. The initial historical, descriptive and explanatory methodology was criticized for not being much use to policy makers. There was focus on scientific rigour and on exploring the connections between education and society, and to identify ‘laws’ governing this relationship. International bodies like UNESCO and World Bank were now becoming more interested in the outcomes of education rather the internal working of schools. An attempt was made to refine the scientific approach by bringing in ‘problem’ approach to comparative education, though it also had its criticisms. Later, Anderson (1961) highlighted the importance of in-depth studies in relation to any aspect of education across countries to develop theories of school–society relationships that could be tested in different contexts. Political science perspective, argued that a country’s education was best understood if the underlying political philosophy of the context was taken into account. The Structural-functionalism, from which emerged modernization theory also had their play in the field of CE. The assumption about education systems being part of social, economic and political structures, and their contribution to economic growth led towards its recognition as a means of socializing younger generation into their norms and values, preparing them for the labour force and for their position in society. The critical approach of Marx highlighted educational inequities and it was also realized that despite investments in developing countries in the field of education, the gap between rich and poor countries was increasing. Now the attention came to be focused on the educational issues of low income countries. It is time to re-think the field of comparative and international education and our areas of priority and the use of methodology to rejuvenate it because: a) we are now almost 100 years since the beginning of the field, b) the influence of intensified globalization and changing geopolitical relations, and migrations call for new approaches to understand the ongoing educational phenomena. It calls for questioning the utility of the old constructs, c) education now is posited within a politically charged debates and there is a need now for educational research to be more cumulative and authoritative – to be more directly relevant, useful and accessible to both policy-makers and practitioners– and to be more cost effective as budgets tighten and accountability is ever more emphasized.

Comparative Education and Policy makers. Traditionally policy makers have indulged in borrowing and copying of educational models, though they are bound to fail if they are copied without being adapted to the specific context of home country. When policy makers look for models to copy they are influenced by three biases: a) language, policy makers turn to countries where there is no language barrier; b) political linkages, educational models are chosen from countries with which the home country has strong political ties, c) hierarchy, policy makers from less developed countries try to emulate the model of more developed countries. These are evident from several examples.

Lesson 4

Geomorphic shifts in CE; Intrusive role of state; Demands on Performance; pressure for funding; Technology.

The domain of higher education has undergone major changes which have been identified by Becher and Trowler (2001) as ‘geomorphic shifts’ in the academic landscape. The elements and causes of these shifts were a) the increasingly intrusive role of state, b) demands for performance and c) an increasing need for academics to generate income for the universities in terms of obtaining grants and d) technology However, these shifts have been at different levels in different countries but these have affected the field of comparative education also. It was noticed that most of the work published in comparative journals was funded projects. Funding by developed countries set the agendas for educational research as they determine both the context and content of the research by limiting their funding to it. The changing geopolitical situations also lead to geomorphic shifts in comparative education, for example the breaking up of USSR. These changes have been more less global yet the field of CE also retains its certain characteristics.

Lesson 5

Conceptualizing education – Three Approaches; Different roles of education; Human Capital theory; Rights-based approach; Education as Capability. Three different approaches can be taken to understand the role of education in society as each approach views education differently and has different conceptions of its role in society. These are: a) human capital approach, b) human rights approach and c) human capability approach. The roles of education in society can be limited to instrumental and intrinsic i.e education as a tool to achieve some goal or education for its own sake. The instrumental goals of education can be viewed as personal and collective and also as economic and non-economic. Hence education has multiple roles in the society. Human capital approach though not without its advantages, only views the