Transnational Research

Curriculum research can take many forms including those that transcend national boundaries. Such research provides perspectives that are either cross-national (involving several national jurisdictions and including direct comparisons of those jurisdictions or providing regional perspectives across a group of countries) or international (involving multiple national jurisdictions that might be taken to give international coverage). Such research is often set in quite specific theoretical frameworks, but this is not a necessary criterion for designation as transnational. A broad range of possible theoretical possibilities encompasses such research, and these are discussed later to frame transnational curriculum research.

In an age of global interconnectedness that is often fueled by economic processes such as globalization, it might be expected that curriculum research across national boarders will assume greater significance. Increased communication between researchers means that common issues and problems will be more easily identified and transnational research teams more easily formed. Nation-states themselves have readily recognized the value of international studies of student performance and researchers have picked up on the secondary analysis of these studies to provide more focused and at times more relevant research. Yet individual researchers have not been slow to recognize the value of national comparative research, especially those who have always worked within a comparative tradition where by definition comparison is the research method of choice. Transnational curriculum research, therefore, takes a variety of forms and relies on a range of methodologies. It can be used to address policy priorities that transcend national borders, it can pursue issues that affect individuals in different locations as they confront oppression and discrimination, or it can focus on traditional academic concerns that are common to different jurisdictions. The key point is that researchers are able to pursue such research collaboratively (i.e., in cross-national teams) and without constraints (i.e., without direct accountabilities to nation states). The benefits of such approaches will greatly enhance the field of curriculum studies.