Mixed methods research (MMR) has been increasingly used in comparative and international education (CIE), but there is less scholarship that discusses the philosophical and methodological bases for such research. This article argues that much research in CIE assumes an ontologically complex and contingent reality and an interdisciplinary and…

While Instrumental Music Education (IME) is offered to students in most developed countries, its rationale and implementation differ significantly due to the sociocultural values and expectations of each society, which tend to remain implicit within educational policies. In this article, we argue that each society should be fully aware of the…

From a Nordic and British perspective, the history of education is a vibrant field of knowledge production. It invites scholars from the humanities and social sciences to investigate the continuities and changes in education over time, as well as "Bildung," nurturing, learning, and teaching. By underlining the breadth of the history of…

At a time when there are renewed expressions of concern about how our societies are organised and the health of our democracies, this paper focuses on the role of education in a democracy. Informed by John Dewey's and Martin Buber's accounts of what it is to be educated, and Homi Bhabha's concept of third space work, the paper presents the case…

Humanist ideas in education have been promoted by both Western thinkers and classical wisdom texts of Asia. Exploring this connection, I examine the educational philosophy of an iconic ancient Tamil (Indian) text, the "Thiruvalluvar Kural," by juxtaposing it with a contemporary humanist classic, Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the…

This paper is a sequel to the author's 2018 BCES presentation in which the rationale was explained for developing a 'new' theory for analytically and critically examining problems in (comparative) education. An outline is given of the steps subsequently taken to develop the theory in more detail. It also sketches practical / pragmatic and…

Purpose: This article aims to reimagine education--and our selves--within the context of multiple, more-than-human worlds where everything and everyone are interrelated. Design/Approach/Methods: The aim is achieved by pursuing two speculative thought experiments to connect and bring into conversation seemingly unrelated knowledge systems across…

In this article, we provide a comparative analysis of public education in Germany and the US, focusing on historical and contemporary challenges to education, "Bildung," and citizenry in the modern nation state. In particular, we examine relations among nation building processes and education, transnational discourses, mutual influences,…

From its very beginnings, we can discern two methodological approaches to comparative education; one broadly historical-philosophical-idiographic and another broadly empirical-positivist-nomothetic. Friedrich August Hecht's 1795-1798 "De re scholastica Anglica cum Germanica comparata" ("English and German school education…

Purpose: In this explorative, self-reflective article, I attempt to extend the methodological discussion of a "negative" approach to comparative education that I have recently articulated elsewhere. Here, I demonstrate how I attempted to put in practice negative comparative education by drawing on my experience at the Shanghai workshop,…

Forty-six interviews of French and Finnish Junior High School teachers clearly show a strong will to link professional commitment to common progressive values. However, the interviewees have to adjust these political or philosophical views when confronted with the reality of their professional everyday life and to the development of widely…

The article presents and analyses the first part of Norwegian educator Hartvig Nissen's (1815-1874) comprehensive report from his study tour to Scotland in 1853. Nissen occupies an important place in Norwegian nineteenth-century educational history and in nineteenth-century history in general, and he is regarded as the main driving force behind…

This article considers the contributions of Indigenous knowledges to educational research. It proposes the term "comparative Indigenous education research" (CIER) in an effort to promote Indigenous-centred research approaches in comparative and international Indigenous education studies. Through CIER, Indigenous peoples and communities…

After criticising the solutionist drift, this article argues for the need for three gestures, in order to build a more problematised Comparative Education: "estrangement," that is, the ability to see the unknown and therefore to distance ourselves from what is already known; "intercession," that is, the ability to perceive the…

The paper looked into concepts claimed to be essence of Chinese residential college, an on-going institution presumed to be a solution towards undergraduates' issues in some pioneer universities in China. It's analyzed that Chinese residential college today in China is not a Shuyuan that was ever striving as a unique education mode in ancient…