Comparative Studies Research

Impetus to Compare

Comparativists recognize that changes in global economics and politics help shape national education practices and policies. Globalization, in all its current forms, has made curriculum studies a field in which the national is in a dialectic with regional and international trends. Comparing curricular developments both within and among countries assists in understanding more fully the global movement of people and ideas, an essential component of what Janet Miller labels transnational flows and mobilities. As state curricula respond to the norms and expectations of supranational organizations, including those with a transnational scope, such as the European Union, and others with a global reach, such as the World Bank and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), comparative research explores the possible development of global curricular norms and patterns. The development of international assessment examinations, such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's (IEA) Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, provide further grounds to examine the development of the possible convergence or homogenization of curricula. Comparative studies research also invites researchers to move beyond [Page 130]the nation-state in framing curricular developments in regional, historical (e.g., colonial period), and religious perspectives. A study comparing Islamic education among the Francophone Hausa of Niger and the Anglophone Hausa of Nigeria, for example, would engage these three lenses with its historical perspective, its consideration of transnational influence of the British and French colonial educational systems, and its consideration of the impact on a relatively homogeneous population across modern political borders.

Traditions of Comparative Studies

Comparative research incorporates a range of theoretical paradigms and methodologies, yet tends to cluster around distinct research approaches including policy borrowing and single-state historical and cultural studies, which are common within curriculum studies. The review essays of 28 countries in William F. Pinar's International Handbook of Curriculum Research provides a compelling example of this latter type of one-nation, comparative study. Theory development has unfolded internationally as well with intellectuals such as Brazil's Paulo Freire and Great Britain's Paul Willis contributing to the growth of a critical perspective on curriculum planning and resistance.

Quantitative approaches to cross-national comparative research gained momentum in the post-World War II era. Quantitative studies tend to examine the official or intended curricula, sometimes across tens of countries, through statistical surveys of policy documents, textbooks, legal frameworks, and achievement results. By the end of the 20th century, quantitative researchers had contributed to the development of a robust world culture theory suggesting the possibility of transnational and even global curricular convergence. Qualitative researchers contest that even in the case of curricular convergence, the enacted and appropriated curriculum varies widely within and across countries.

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