Comparative Education-6317 MA Education

Chapter 1
1. Introduction to Comparative Education
Comparative education is a vast field of study. It does not only study other countries' educational systems
or confine itself to a single, strict definition because it covers disciplines such as the sociology, political
science, psychology, and anthropology of different countries.

Comparative education is a detailed study of educational systems to determine how people's values and
beliefs affect their educational system and provide a suitable education.

The field is a deep, critical examination of other countries' societal values and educational systems to
evaluate one's system and refresh one's own culture by adopting progressive aspects from elsewhere based
on the comparison.

1.1. Concept Of Comparative Education, Meaning, Need, And Scope

Concept of Comparative Education

Comparative educationists are primarily scholars who study education in different

environments to discover why they are the way they are and attempt to solve educational
problems. Comparative education is a multidisciplinary subject that uses knowledge from other
humanities and social sciences disciplines.

Sodhi (2006) perceives comparative education as a field of study that applies historical,
philosophical, and social science theories and methods to international education problems.

Getao (1996) defined Comparative Education as a discipline, the study of educational

systems in which one seeks to understand the similarities and differences among educational
systems.

As a sum of the definitions, comparative education is a discipline through which one makes
comparisons of education systems across national boundaries by examining in detail the
structure, curriculum, administration, financing, and participation to understand the factors and
forces that account for the differences and similarities in these systems of education.

Meaning of Comparative Education

Comparative education is a comparative study of educational theories and practices in various

countries. Comparative education attempts to use cross-national data to test propositions about
the relationship between education and society and between teaching practices and learning
outcomes.

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Instructor: Iqra Rashid, Department of Education, University of Sargodha, Pakistan.
Comparative Education-6317 MA Education

Adeyinka (1994) gives the following definitions for the concept.

➢ A study of two or more education systems

➢ A study of how the philosophy, objectives and aims, policy and practice of education in
other countries influence the general development, policy, and practice of education in a
particular country
➢ A study of how the development of education in the past influence by the action of
particular countries
➢ A study of the school systems of two or more countries and the administrative machinery
set up to implement or to control the implementation of government policies at various
levels of education systems

The need for Comparative Education

The need to study comparative education is to

➢ Assist in the understanding of one's educational institutions and educational practices.

➢ Assist in the understanding of the factors that are responsible for various educational
changes
➢ Educate the students and teachers on the procedure through which educational changes
occur
➢ Contribute not only to the educational development of the society but also to the
community's general development
➢ Serve as an academic discipline
➢ Assist in solving one's educational problems
➢ Open one's eyes to the educational philosophies, theories, and practices of other countries
➢ Assist both the students and teachers of discipline in gathering reliable information
concerning the educational system
➢ Assist in the Promotion of international relationships
➢ Contribute to the formulation of a country's educational systems

Scope of Comparative Education

The term "scope," according to the Longman dictionary of contemporary English, could mean:

➢ The area within the limit of a question, subject, action

➢ Space or chance for actions or thought

From the above, the scope of comparative education means the area or areas covered by the
discipline. The subject's scope also connotes the various subjects or disciplines from where
Comparative Education draws its information directly or indirectly.

A critical look at the various definitions of the discipline undoubtedly reveals that Comparative
Education is an interdisciplinary subject since it relies on other subjects to accomplish its
objectives. As a multidisciplinary subject, its scope covers the historical development of education
from Roman and Greek civilizations. It also includes the historical development of non-formal

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Instructor: Iqra Rashid, Department of Education, University of Sargodha, Pakistan.
Comparative Education-6317 MA Education

education in any country of study. The discipline has its scope extended to the purposes of
education systems of the countries study, an investigation into the similarities and differences
existing in the countries' educational practices under investigation.

However, subjects from where Comparative Education draws its contents include the following:

i. History of Education vii. Psychology

ii. Philosophy of Education viii. Statistics
iii. Sociology of Education ix. Literature
iv. Anthropology x. Political Geography
v. Economics xi. Political Science and
vi. Geography xii. International Relations
The above explanation clearly shows that the subject is not independent of other subjects; it is a
discipline that relates to other subjects to accomplish its aims and objectives. It may reasonably
conclude that the subject's interdisciplinary nature has contributed to the wideness of the discipline.

Evans (2013) has elaborated the scope of comparative education under the following five
Perspectives.

i. The subject matter and content; cover the essential components of educational systems
such as structure, aims, content or curriculum, administration, financing, teacher
education.
ii. Geographical units of study; comprises intra-national, international, regional,
continental, and global or world-systems studies and analysis.
iii. Ideological scope; this compares countries' educational systems based on political,
social, and economic ideologies, for example, democratic, communism, socialist,
capitalist, free-market, and mixed economies.
iv. Thematic scope focuses on educational themes, topical issues, or problems. It
compares them within one or more geographical units, for example, free primary and
secondary education, universal primary education, Education for all, and universal higher
education.
v. The historical or spatial scope; deals with the study of the historical
development of the discipline from the earliest (pre-historic) phase known as the
period of Travelers' Tales to the modern stage known as the period of social science
perspectives.

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Instructor: Iqra Rashid, Department of Education, University of Sargodha, Pakistan.
Comparative Education-6317 MA Education
1.2. Purpose Of Comparative Education

According to Harold J Nosh (1985) and Dr Farooq Joubish (2009), Comparative Education has
four purposes

i. Explaining educational systems, processes outcomes:

ii. Helping the development of educational instructions and practices;
iii. Emphasizing the relationships between education and society
iv. They are forming generalized statements about education relevant in more than one
country.

Kidd (1975) provides the following detailed list of purposes for engaging in comparative education
are:

i. To become better informed about the educational system of other countries

ii. To become better informed about how people in other cultures have carried out certain
social functions through education.
iii. To become better informed about the historical roots of specific activities and use this to
develop criteria for assessing contemporary development and possible testing outcomes:
iv. To better understand the educational forms and systems operating in one's own country;
v. To satisfy an interest in how other human beings live and learn:
vi. To better understand oneself, and
vii. To reveal how one's cultural biases and personal attributes affect one's judgment about
possible ways of carrying on learning transactions.
1.3. Comparative Education As An Educational Science

Comparative education is a discipline in the social sciences that entails the scrutiny and evaluation
of different educational systems, such as those in various countries. Since the end of world war, two
in 1945 interest and activity in comparative education have developed dramatically and especially in two
main respects.

a. The work of new and influential national and international agencies involved in the educational
inquiry, planning and programme implementation. In these associations, there were those
comparativists who saw the field's most productive future in terms of more active involvement in
international projects of an inquiring or potentially reformative kind.

b. Increased activity in the study and teaching of comparative education as a discipline in colleges,
universities and comparative education centres for research. This also points to a further shift in
emphasis on social science.

There is a close relationship between Comparative Education and other social sciences; it is the discipline
where information about education and other social sciences intersects.

According to Noah and Eckstein, "Comparative Education is an intersection of social sciences, education,
and cross-national study which attempts to use cross-national data to test propositions about the relationship
between education and society and between teaching practices and learning outcomes."

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Instructor: Iqra Rashid, Department of Education, University of Sargodha, Pakistan.
 Comparative Education-6317 MA Education
Getao (1996) has enumerated that the following forces characterize the contemporary era: Explosion of
knowledge, especially in science and technology.

i. Drive for more knowledge and globalization.

ii. Drive for liberty with the proclamation of human rights by UNESCO in 1948.
iii. Urbanization as a result of industrialization.
iv. Population explosion due to the development of medical science where fifty percent of the
population is under twenty years.
v. Drive for the reconstruction of peace to facilitate material, moral and spiritual reconstruction. This
is to help in removing suspicion and distrust among nations and promote goodwill and cooperation
among them.

Motivation and characteristic activities

The comparativists has been pre-occupied with debate to identify the best method of conducting
comparative education studies to yield the most valid data, information and advice. Some of the individuals
who have contributed to the development of comparative education during this phase involved: Vernon
Mallinson, Joseph A. Lauwerys, George Z.E. Bereday, Brian Holmes and Edmund J. King. Institutions of
learning, various agencies and comparative education societies have contributed to the development of this
phase. After World War Two University centres developed comparative education studies. Today they have
developed comparative education as a discipline in various countries of the world in Africa, Asia, Europe,
Latin America and North America. The scope of work in comparative education has broadened through the
development of international, regional and national agencies.

Scholars have demanded and attempted to develop a science of comparative education that would
finally place comparative education in the family of social sciences and at the same time maintain
its distinctive position from them.

i. Stages in Bereday's Comparative Method in Education

1) Description and data collection 3) Juxtaposition

2) Interpretation 4) Comparison
ii. Stages in Brian Holmes's Problem Approach in Comparative Education

1) Problem formulation 4) Analyze the physical and socioeconomic

2) Policy formulation or hypotheses context
development 5) Predicting policy consequences
3) Prediction of policy outcomes
iii. Stages in Noah and Eckstein's scientific method

1) Identification of the problem 4) Selection of cases for study

2) Development of a hypothesis: 5) Collection of data
3) Definition of concepts and indicators 6) Manipulation of the data
7) Interpretation of results

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Instructor: Iqra Rashid, Department of Education, University of Sargodha, Pakistan.