Comparative education research is complicated by the difficulty of identifying comparable units across contexts. This paper considers the advantages and limitations of a functional equivalence approach to comparative education. The functional equivalence approach allows us to meaningfully compare the operations that serve each function in the full…

Scholars and students of comparative education routinely, and often reflexively, categorize places with labels that have complex and problematic histories, connotations and associations. Both comparative education classrooms and scholarship will benefit from reflecting on the dynamics of labeling places. We seek to provide a framework for…

Several countries in South Asia face the challenge of ineffective educational reforms manifest in increasing rates of school failure and poor learning outcomes after embarking along education for all. Critical voices from the South have questioned the relevance and appropriateness of ideas that have shaped these reforms. Narratives from the region…

This article argues that since World War II, comparative education has worked in the service of two historic blocs: one focused on creating institutions and ideologies in support of internationalism and a second focused on containing the threat of communism. Both versions have supported and justified foreign intervention into domestic education…

What is the explanation for American students' comparatively mediocre academic performance? "A Mirror for Americans" finds part of it in how they are taught in primary schools. Comparisons with East Asian teaching are supplied by 50 years of research findings. Grove asks not that we copy East Asian teaching approaches, but that we use…

Home education is at an early stage for the public, researchers, media and educational authorities in China. Yet the research relating to the development of home education has been entirely ignored. In particular, the literature focusing on the legal status of home education is negligible in the educational context of China. There is no literature…

World history education as a type of cultural production has expanded globally in the past thirty years. This article surveys world history as a component of curricula in universities, colleges, and precollegiate schools in several parts of the world. The author argues that teachers and scholars in the United States pioneered this field and that…

This chapter explores the current development of Comparative Education in Central Asia through two parts: a general review of knowledge production with reference to Central Asia in top Comparative Education journals, followed by the development of Comparative Education in Kazakhstan as well as its policy priorities as an example. The example of…

Amid debates about global university rankings (GURs), very few have closely examined how GURs' media outlets construct meanings of higher education (HE) in their visual representations. We critically examine 135 publicly available visual media (photographs) in the Times Higher Education (THE) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) websites to uncover the…

East Asia shows newly emerging experiments in lifelong learning that contrast with European experiences. The concepts and ideas share a similar platform, while the trajectories of institutionalization reveal great differences. It is because the idea of lifelong learning was coined by international agencies, like UNESCO, to share, it rather shows…

Multiculturalism burst in Asia with the winds of globalisation. Fuelled by immigration, cultural hybridity and normative regimes from multilateral and bilateral organisations, multiculturalism is a new challenge for Asian economies, their politics of culture and their higher education institutions. Moreover, although heavily implemented from the…

Transformation of post-socialist educational systems is perhaps one of the most interesting and at the same time underestimated in its importance, developments in the history of comparative education. After the three decades of post-socialist development one can note significant differences between the countries which once had identical or very…

From diplomatic spats between Qatar and Saudi Arabia to ubiquitous deceptive "news" updates purportedly sent by the Eritrean government urging all men to marry two wives or risk imprisonment, the future of fact-based reporting appears uncertain as mass media recipients world over become accustomed to consuming "fake news."…

Liberal education as a form of higher education is increasing globally even as it struggles for support and legitimacy in the USA. Its emergence and spread are only partially attributable to the growth in the tertiary sector worldwide: although the sharpest spike has been in Asia, new programs have opened in Western Europe, Russia and the Middle…

Comparative education in Asia is witnessing changing discourses, structural opportunities, and invigorated leadership. This article will review the institutionalization of comparative education in Asia from a sociological perspective, drawing on Bourdieu's theory on the logic of social practice. After giving an overview of the historical roots of…