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Rethinking Context in Comparative Education

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International Handbook of Comparative Education

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE,volume 22))

Concern with context penetrates to the heart of comparative education. It is reflected in much of the early writing within the field, and it remains central to many contemporary intellectual positionings, discourses and developments. Contextual issues are also central to many of the most passionate theoretical and methodological debates that are to be found in the research literature — past and present. Thus questions of context reveal much about the history of comparative education, at the same time as they inspire and shape some of the most challenging research and scholarship at the cutting edge of the field today.

This chapter explores the nature and implications of such debates, and of the contextual themes that play a strategic role in shaping the future of some of the most innovative approaches to comparative and international education worldwide. This is done with reference to developments that have made a significant contribution to the evolution of research in comparative education, and to my own related work within this multi-disciplinary field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, UK

    Michael Crossley

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  1. Michael Crossley
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  1. Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL, UK

    Robert Cowen

  2. Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53711, USA

    Andreas M. Kazamias

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Crossley, M. (2009). Rethinking Context in Comparative Education. In: Cowen, R., Kazamias, A.M. (eds) International Handbook of Comparative Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6403-6_73

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